|
Sept. 11 Suspect's Mum Refuses To See Son With FBI Present
 |
| Sept 11 Suspect is only allowed to see mother with the presence of the FBI |
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, Dec. 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The mother of Zacarias Moussaoui, the French national indicted in connection with the September 11 deadly attacks, has refused an offer to visit her son with an FBI agent present, according to the suspect's French defense lawyer.
"We asked the prosecutor to authorize a visit by Mrs. Aicha el-Wafi to her son," said Moussaoui's French defense attorney Francois Roux, speaking to reporters in French late Friday in this city just outside the U.S. capital.
"The prosecutor granted the request, but said that it could not take place without an FBI agent being present," Roux said. "That is not acceptable."
Moussaoui's mother made the decision in consultation with him and her son's court-appointed public defenders, Roux said.
El-Wafi herself said she was angry at the conditions.
"I do not accept anyone being there. If I cannot see him alone, I do not want to see him," el-Wafi said. "The American government is placing a man between me and my son."
El-Wafi arrived in Washington from Paris late Thursday with Roux, a high-profile French lawyer who will assist in her son's defense.
U.S. authorities have indicted Moussaoui on six charges, including conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, destroy aircraft, murder U.S. employees and use weapons of mass destruction.
He is currently being held in Alexandria, Virginia, where he is to be formally charged in a U.S. federal court on January 2. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty for four charges, and life in prison for the remaining two.
The presence of a Federal Bureau of Investigations agent is a violation of the rights of the defense, Roux said.
"I do not know for my part anywhere in the world where a family is forced to meet their child in presence of a government agent," he said.
Moussaoui's mother went on a public relations offensive in the U.S. capital and on several major American media outlets Friday, telling U.S. television that while she felt deep sympathy for the pain the United States had suffered from the terrorist attacks, she was certain that her son had played no role in the attack.
Speaking on CNN, el-Wafi reasoned that because her son has been in custody since August, he could not have played a role in the September 11 attacks.
"The day that I found out my son had been implicated, I was happy to know he was in prison" on the day of the attacks, that he "was not implicated in the deaths of all those people," el-Wafi said on arrival in Washington.
El-Wafi demanded to see proof of her son's guilt, noting that Moussaoui had written her in October saying he had done nothing and was innocent.
She added that her son's English was so poor he would need French interpreters for his trial on the terror-related charges.
El-Wafi also said she knew nothing about her son's alleged relationship with Mohammed Atta -- the Egyptian who flew one of two hijacked planes that hit the World Trade Center -- other than what she had learned from the media.
The French national of Moroccan descent was arrested earlier this month in Minnesota on immigration charges and was transferred to New York after the attacks on the city, and later to Virginia.
On December 11, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the charges against Moussaoui are the first resulting from a wide-ranging federal probe of the attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people.
"Today 7,000 miles from the battlefield in Afghanistan, another victory is taking shape in the war on terrorism," said Attorney General John Ashcroft. "We will be relentless and resolute. We will not forget, and we will prevail.
"The United States of America has brought the awesome weight of justice against the terrorists who brutally murdered innocent Americans...Al-Qaeda will now meet the justice it abhors and the judgment it fears."
"Moussaoui followed many of the same patterns and took many of the same steps as the [other] 19 hijackers," said Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Meuller said Moussaoui attended an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. He also is alleged to have received flight training in the United States, inquired about crop dusters, and received funding from sources in Germany and the Middle East.
Moussaoui was arrested August 16, after tutors at the Minnesota flight school he was attending tipped off federal agents that he had been acting suspiciously. He has been detained without charge, along at least 1,000 other people, as a material witness.
Moussaoui has been the subject of intense scrutiny since the attacks, which occurred while he was in custody.
The FBI had wanted to examine the hard drive of his computer, but the Justice Department refused to grant a search warrant because there did not seem enough evidence to suggest he was a terrorist threat.
U.S. officials had earlier mentioned Moussaoui as a possible 20th member of the hijacking team.
FBI director, Robert Mueller, said the computer showed that Moussaoui had gathered information about the "dispersal of chemicals" as well as about crop-duster planes. The discovery prompted the administration of U.S. President, George W. Bush, to temporarily ground crop-dusters as a precaution against a possible biochemical attack.
|
