Moussaoui pleaded guilty in terror plot
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-29 09:16

Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty last week to charges linked to the September 11 attacks despite thinking that he would surely face the death penalty, according to a transcript of a closed-door meeting with his judge.

"I have come to understand that the, the course I've chosen will lead me potentially -- you say potentially, I say surely, but it's a matter of opinion -- to the gas chamber or the, or the lethal injection," Moussaoui told Judge Leonie Brinkema on April 20, two days before pleading guilty in open court.

"I understand this fact. I understand life and death. I had the privilege to be in war. I've seen dead bodies," said Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty to six charges related to the September 11, 2001, attacks, four of which carry the death penalty.

Brinkema had met with Moussaoui to determine whether he was mentally competent to plead guilty. She later ruled that he had the capacity to do so. One of Moussaoui's attorney, Alan Yamamoto, was present at the meeting along with a court reporter.

"You are not in charge of my life. You are in charge of my death," the avowed Al-Qaeda member told Brinkema.

"You have a lynch mentality, and you won the prize. You catch the beast, you have the feather and the tar, and you are going to have the party," he added.

US prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty in the case's sentencing phase, and Moussaoui has said he will fight for his life. When the judge mentioned Friday that she would unseal the transcript from their April 20 meeting, he firmly opposed it.

"I have significantly changed my position," Moussaoui said. "On Wednesday, I did mention I intended to plead for the death penalty. I have come to understand a few things, also with your advice. I will not apply for death. In fact, I will fight every inch against the death penalty".

Releasing the transcript would "give the impression Moussaoui wanted the death penalty. No, Moussaoui will fight every inch against the death penalty," he insisted.

The judge has yet to set a date for the sentencing phase of the trial. A jury will decide whether Moussaoui will get the death penalty after a series of hearings.

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