Moussaoui asks to withdraw guilty plea

updated 7:06 a.m. ET May 9, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Convicted Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui says he lied on the witness stand about being involved in the plot and wants to withdraw his guilty plea because he now believes he can get a fair trial from an American jury.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema denied Moussaoui’s request Monday afternoon, saying the motion was “too late.”

In a motion filed Friday but released Monday, Moussaoui said he testified on March 27 that he was supposed to hijack a fifth plane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House “even though I knew that was a complete fabrication.”

A federal court jury spared the 37-year-old Frenchman the death penalty last Wednesday. On Thursday, Brinkema gave him six life sentences, to run as two consecutive life terms, in the federal supermax prison at Florence, Colo.

Explaining his latest reversal, Moussaoui said in an affidavit: “I was extremely surprised” by the life sentence.

Admits fair U.S. trial is possible
“I had thought I would be sentenced to death based on the emotions and anger toward me for the deaths on Sept. 11, but after reviewing the jury verdict and reading how the jurors set aside their emotions and disgust for me and focused on the law and the evidence ... I now see that it is possible that I can receive a fair trial even with Americans as jurors.”

At sentencing, Brinkema told Moussaoui, “You do not have a right to appeal your convictions, as was explained to you” when he pleaded guilty in April 2005. “You waived that right,” she said.

Brinkema said Moussaoui could appeal his sentence but added, “I believe it would be an act of futility.”

Moussaoui’s court-appointed lawyers told the court that they filed the motion even though a federal rule “prohibits a defendant from withdrawing a guilty plea after imposition of sentence.” They did so anyway, they said, because of their “problematic relationship with Moussaoui” and the fact that new lawyers have yet to be appointed to replace them.

The defense lawyers were not immediately available for comment Monday. Brinkema said they would be replaced after they filed any appeal Moussaoui might want.

The motion said Moussaoui told his lawyers Friday that he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea because when he entered it his “understanding of the American legal system was completely flawed.”

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