Birth place: St. Jean-de-Luz, France
Father: Omar Moussaoui
Mother: Aicha el-Wafi
Education: South Bank University, London, MS, 1995
Other Facts
Investigators said Moussaoui attended mosques in Great Britain with suspected al Qaeda connections. One of those mosques was where convicted terrorist cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was the prayer leader.
After a mental health evaluation, the judge allows Moussaoui to represent himself, only to end his pro-se representation when his filings are cited as “inflammatory and unprofessional.”
Prosecutors alleged that Moussaoui attended a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan in 1998.
A search of Moussaoui’s belongings shortly after 9/11 turned up Boeing 747 flight manuals, two knives, an aviation radio, information on aerial application of pesticides, and a notebook containing German telephone numbers.
Timeline
1996 – French authorities begin monitoring Moussaoui when they notice him with Islamic extremists.
1999 – French authorities place Moussaoui on a watch list.
February 26-May 29, 2001 – Moussaoui trains at the Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma. He takes more than 50 hours of flying lessons but leaves without a pilot’s license.
August 1 and 3, 2001 – Moussaoui is allegedly wired $14,000 from Ramzi bin al-Shibh, an alleged al Qaeda operative. The money is wired from Dusseldorf and Hamburg, Germany.
August 2001 – Minnesota FBI agents are refused permission by the Washington office to obtain a search warrant for Moussaoui’s computer.
September 2001 – Moussaoui is identified as a possible 9/11 conspirator and potential fifth hijacker on Flight 93, the only plane with four instead of five hijackers. Also, the US government states that he was to have piloted a fifth jetliner that would have targeted the White House.
December 11, 2001 – A federal grand jury indicts Moussaoui on six counts of conspiracy related to the September 11 attacks, including conspiracy to destroy aircraft and murder United States employees.
January 2, 2002 – Moussaoui is arraigned. He declines to enter a plea for himself, writing “In the name of Allah, I do not have anything to plead.” US District Judge Leonie Brinkema enters a not guilty plea on his behalf.
September 24, 2002 – Prosecutors file a motion that says a business card that belonged to alleged lead hijacker Ziad Jarrah was found in the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, field where UA Flight 93 crashed. Written on the back of the card was a telephone number that prosecutors claim Moussaoui had called.
September 26, 2002 – The government acknowledges that it mistakenly turned over 48 classified documents to Moussaoui. All documents are eventually recovered.
May 14, 2003 – Moussaoui claims that at the time of the 9/11 attacks, he was preparing for a different al Qaeda operation which would have taken place later, and not in the US. Moussaoui’s revelation — his most detailed to date — comes in a brief filed by defense attorneys assisting him with his pre-trial appeal.
April 22, 2004 – The Court of Appeals decides that the government may introduce evidence of the attacks in which Moussaoui is charged as a conspirator, and can pursue the death penalty against him, overturning Brinkema’s ruling.
September 13, 2004 – The Court of Appeals orders the Moussaoui case sent back to district court so attorneys from both sides can compromise on how to grant Moussaoui access to information supplied by al Qaeda captives, that he says would help absolve him of the most serious charges against him.
March 6, 2006 – The jury is selected and sworn in. Seven women and 10 men are chosen as the 12 jurors, with five alternates. Moussaoui was barred from jury selection due to his frequent outbursts.
April 3, 2006 – The jury decides Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty. The jury now has two choices for Moussaoui’s punishment — death by lethal injection or life in prison.
May 3, 2006 – The jury recommends a life sentence without parole for his part in plotting the 9/11 attacks. He is formally sentenced by Judge Brinkema on Thursday, May 4th.
May 13, 2006 – Moussaoui is transferred to the nation’s highest security penitentiary near Florence, Colorado, to serve his life sentence.
May 23, 2006 – Bin Laden releases an audiotape in which he refutes Moussaoui’s confession, “I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers, and I never assigned brother Zacarias to be with them in that mission…”
February 26, 2008 – Moussaoui’s lawyers ask the appeals court in Virginia to revoke his guilty plea, stating that his original lawyers were not permitted to discuss crucial, classified evidence about the case with him, and that this violated his constitutional rights.
January 26, 2009 – Lawyers for Moussaoui present oral arguments before the court of appeals in a bid to win their client a new trial.