Reuters Mother Says Moussaoui Innocent of Sept. 11 Attacks WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The mother of Zacarias Moussaoui, the
first person indicted in the Sept. 11 attacks on America which
killed nearly 3,300 people, insisted on Thursday that her son was
innocent and appealed for him not to be made into a scapegoat. U.S. officials have said Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan
descent, may have been preparing to join the hijacking teams behind
the attacks. The plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania had only four
hijackers while the three other planes that demolished New York's
World Trade Center and slammed into the Pentagon each had five
hijackers on board. ``He wrote to me in October, and in that letter he told me 'Mum,
I haven't done anything, I have proof I've done nothing. You'll see,
Mum, I'll show you I haven't,''' Aicha el-Wafi told Reuters in a
telephone interview. El-Wafi arrived in the United States ahead of a Jan. 2
arraignment hearing where her 33-year-old son is expected to enter a
formal plea to conspiracy charges that carry a possible death
penalty. ``After that letter he sent, it's obvious that he'll say he's not
guilty because he told me he wasn't guilty. I believe him because
even when he was little he didn't lie to me,'' she said from her
hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. His mother said the U.S. government should try Moussaoui on the
evidence and not make him into a scapegoat to assuage public anger
about the attacks. ``I share the sense of loss and unhappiness Americans have felt
since Sept. 11. But people should not try my son just to make an
example of him,'' Moussaoui's mother said. The United States has blamed Osama bin Laden for the Sept. 11
hijacks and launched a military operation which ousted the Taliban
movement for sheltering the Saudi-born militant. But bin Laden
himself remains elusive, appearing only in a succession of video
tapes. MOTHER'S LOVE She said she wanted to see her son and also hoped to meet with
his American lawyers to help prepare his defense. ``All I ask is to see him, not for political or religious reasons
but as his mother ... I love him,'' she said. Moussaoui initially was arrested on immigration violations after
he aroused suspicion trying to buy time on a jumbo jet simulator at
a flight school. He was detained in Minnesota on Aug. 16 but after
the Sept. 11 attacks, authorities sent him to New York for
questioning as a material witness. On Dec. 11, the United States indicted Moussaoui on six counts --
conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, commit aircraft piracy,
destroy aircraft, use weapons of mass destruction, murder U.S.
employees and destroy property. El-Wafi said her son spoke limited English but had not mastered
the language and would need a French translator during his court
hearings. ``His case should be translated into French, he was born in
France, and he has the right to understand the accusations and what
he's being reproached for. You can't accept or deny the accusations
if you don't know what they are,'' she said. Before the indictment, Moussaoui said he was innocent, a position
repeated by his lawyer Donald DuBoulay days later. El-Wafi and her lawyer Francois Roux were waiting to hear whether
their request to see Moussaoui would be granted by U.S. authorities.
They said they had asked French diplomats for help in arranging a
meeting. Copyright © 2001. Reuters. All rights reserved. saved from url: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-attack-moussaoui-mother.html
December 27, 2001
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