Only convicted in the US by September 11 asks transfer to France

O it was submitted this morning to the Ministry of Justice, on the basis of a bilateral agreement of 1983 between France and the United States allowing the transfer of convicts between the two countries, said lawyer Romain Ruiz.

Moussaoui, now 58, is serving a life sentence in a maximum security jail in the U.S. state of Colorado.

Arrested a few weeks before September 11, 2001, he was convicted in 2006 for complicity in the attacks claimed by terrorist group Al-Qaida, which caused nearly 3,000 deaths.

The transfer request is based, according to the news agency France-Presse (AFP), who had access to the document, on “exceptional circumstances related to the injustice of the trial, the current conditions of detention and the family situation”.

The lawyer claimed, in the request, that the documents related to September 11 ceased to be secret in 2021, which constitutes “a violation of the rights of [Zacarias] Moussaoui, an obstruction of the right to defence” and, above all, that the convict, long presented as the alleged 20th air pirate, “did not aim to participate on September 11, but rather in a subsequent operation”.

The lawyer also highlighted the “family rights” and the “inhumane living conditions” of the convict, who has been in isolation since he was arrested.

The mother, who has only seen Zechariah Moussaoui three times in 25 years, “can no longer travel to Colorado for economic and health reasons,” Ruiz told AFP.

“ The question is whether France accepts that one of its citizens should be treated in this way. Can we close our eyes to such an unfair situation?” he questioned, stressing that his client is not asking to be released, but to serve the sentence in France.

Zechariah Moussaoui© Sherburne County Sheriffs Office/Getty Images  

The French Ministry of Justice refused to comment, but a judicial source heard by AFP admitted to doubt “that the United States would extradite the only person convicted” by the September 11 attacks.

The beginning of the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the mentor of the attacks, is scheduled for June 5, 2028, in Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), where he has been detained for 20 years, announced the US military justice system at the end of August.