Moussaoui claims innocence, seeks trial

WASHINGTON — Facing transfer to the nation's toughest federal prison, Zacarias Moussaoui served up what may be his final legal surprise Monday: The al-Qaida conspirator said he was not involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot after all and wants a new trial to prove it.

His efforts were immediately rejected by a federal judge.

In a motion in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., Moussaoui sought to withdraw his guilty plea and be granted a new trial "to prove my innocence of the Sept. 11 plot." The filing came four days after he was sentenced to life in prison, a punishment determined by a jury that heard Moussaoui testify during a seven-week sentencing trial that he had planned to fly a fifth hijacked airplane into the White House on Sept. 11.

Now, the French citizen says that testimony was "a complete fabrication." In an affidavit accompanying the motion, Moussaoui said he never met lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, didn't know the other 18 hijackers "or anything about their operation," and was taking flying lessons in the United States only to train for a second wave of attacks.

He also offered measured praise for the U.S. legal system he has spent the past four years attacking. Moussaoui said he lied on the stand because he assumed he would be executed "based on the emotions and anger toward me for the deaths on Sept. 11." But he was "extremely surprised" at the jury's verdict, he said, and now believes "it is possible I can receive a fair trial even with Americans as jurors."

He said he agreed to plead guilty only because 4 ½ years in solitary confinement had "made me hostile toward everyone and I began taking extreme positions to fight the system."

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected Moussaoui's motion late Monday, saying federal rules prohibit a defendant from withdrawing a guilty plea after being sentenced.

Moussaoui can appeal her ruling to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, but legal experts said such appeals are rarely granted and would probably require a grievous legal error by the judge.

"His chances are zilch," said Victoria Toensing, a Washington lawyer who was head of counter-terrorism for the Justice Department in the Reagan administration.

Even Moussaoui's attorneys acknowledged in a footnote Monday that their motion could not be granted under federal rules, but they said they were filing it anyway "given their problematic relationship with Moussaoui." They were referring to Moussaoui's refusal to cooperate with them.

Material from the Los Angeles Times is included in this report