Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen and the only person convicted in the U.S. for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is requesting to serve the remainder of his life sentence in France. This was announced by his lawyer, Romain Ruiz.
The 58‑year‑old Moussaoui has spent 20 years in a high‑security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2006 of conspiracy in connection with the al‑Qaeda‑orchestrated 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. He is serving a life sentence in solitary confinement with no possibility of parole.
Request for transfer to France
The request for Moussaoui’s transfer to France was submitted to the French Ministry of Justice on September 3, in accordance with a 1983 treaty that allows for the transfer of convicted persons between France and the U.S.
Lawyer Romain Ruiz justified the request based on “exceptional circumstances related to the unfairness of his trial, current conditions of detention, and family situation.”
The petition cites documents about the 9/11 attacks that the U.S. began declassifying in 2021, as well as a 2022 report by the Federal Judicial Center. Ruiz says the report identified 12 violations of Moussaoui’s rights during the trial. As reported by Le Monde, these included the defense’s inability to cross‑examine potential witnesses during preparation.
Moussaoui arrived in the U.S. a few weeks before the attacks, after spending several weeks in Pakistan. He was arrested before the attacks when a flight school in Minnesota, where he was training, raised concerns about his behavior and alerted the FBI. L’Obs notes that French intelligence had already flagged Moussaoui as a person of interest when U.S. authorities contacted them prior to the attacks.
Long labeled the potential 20th hijacker, his lawyer now argues that declassified documents show Moussaoui was planning a different operation and was not intended to take part in the 9/11 attacks.
Conditions of detention and family situation
Ruiz also cites “his client’s rights as a family member” and “inhumane conditions of detention”. Moussaoui is held in solitary confinement at the ADX Florence federal prison in Colorado, which houses some of the most dangerous inmates in the U.S.
All inmates there occupy single cells and exercise alone. Le Monde reports that Moussaoui’s contact with the outside world is limited to monthly phone calls with his mother and occasional visits from a French diplomat.
His mother, Aicha El Wafi, has seen her son only three times in the last 25 years. Ruiz says she can no longer travel to Colorado because of financial and medical constraints.
“I wait every month for the day he calls. I will never see him again and I am afraid of dying without having seen him,” El Wafi told the French television channel RMC.
U.S. has previously denied transfer
L’Obs reports that Moussaoui asked for a transfer in 2024, but the U.S. Department of Justice rejected the request. A federal judge later upheld the denial, and U.S. authorities maintain that the life sentence must be served in U.S. custody.
A judicial source told AFP that the transfer requires consent from both the U.S. and France, and expressed doubt that Washington would agree to hand over the only person convicted in the 9/11 case.
The French Ministry of Justice declined to comment. Ruiz has asked the French ministry to formally request Moussaoui’s transfer from the U.S. Department of Justice.
“This decision must be coordinated by the American and French ministries. Like any political decision, it is not in my hands. But I think France would do itself honor by agreeing to this,” Ruiz told the newspaper Le Parisien when asked about the prospects for the transfer.
Meanwhile, the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is scheduled to begin on June 5, 2028 at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, where he has been held for 20 years.
Source: RFI
