Plea of innocent for Moussaoui, only defendant in terror attack

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Zacarias Moussaoui declined "in the name of Allah" to enter a plea Wednesday to charges he conspired to murder thousands on Sept. 11. The judge set an October trial for the only man charged in the suicide hijackings despite defense concerns it would be too close to the anniversary.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema entered an innocent plea on Moussaoui's behalf after the defendant strode to the courtroom lectern to make a brief statement.

"In the name of Allah, I do not have anything to plead. I enter no plea. Thank you very much," the balding, bearded Moussaoui told the judge.

Brinkema said she took that to mean he was pleading innocent to the charges. Moussaoui remained silent, but one of his lawyers, Frank Dunham, answered, "Yes."

Quiet in court

Guarded by U.S. marshals and dressed in a dark green jumpsuit with the word "prisoner" on the back, Moussaoui remained silent for most of his arraignment.

He did not speak to his court-appointed attorneys. And when an official intoned "all rise" at the arraignment's conclusion, Moussaoui didn't get up until prompted by a marshal to leave.

Moussaoui, 33, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is charged with conspiring to help the hijackers and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network plot the September attacks. He was charged with six conspiracy charges, including four that carry a maximum penalty of death.

Brinkema ordered jury selection to begin Sept. 30 but the Oct. 14 trial date she originally scheduled was changed when she was told that was Columbus Day. Instead, she ordered the trial to start approximately two weeks after jury selection begins, meaning mid-October. She rejected defense arguments that the dates were too close to the one-year anniversary and the publicity it would generate.

Brinkema said she was confident both sides could find an excellent jury in northern Virginia.

"It was surprising to me how few people from the northern Virginia pool knew anybody" killed or injured in the airliner attacks, she said.

With a wrinkled brown piece of paper in front of him, Moussaoui spent much of the hearing seated with one hand lightly resting on his chin as his lawyers sought unsuccessfully to get a trial date in early 2003.

"The need to be further away from Sept. 11 is obvious," said defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Spencer countered that publicity about the attacks "is going to have to be dealt with by the court" no matter when the trial begins.

Zerkin also argued that the court-appointed defense attorneys are dealing with a vast indictment that is international in scope, lists events in several European countries and may bring witnesses from abroad.

He said the defense team will need time to gain security clearances, find interpreters for Arabic documents and bone up on the history of bin Laden's al-Qaida network and the principles of Islam.

"We simply cannot prepare a case in that amount of time," Zerkin argued.

Brinkema, however, accepted the government's suggested trial date, saying publicity from the one-year anniversary should wane by mid-October.

Federal marshals brought Moussaoui to the courthouse nearly four hours before the scheduled arraignment and at least a dozen were inside the seventh-floor courtroom. Two marshals stood behind Moussaoui during the proceeding.

An X-ray machine and metal detector were set up outside the courtroom in addition to the security machines at the courthouse entrance.

Mother from France

Moussaoui's mother, Aicha el-Wafi, came to the United States from France last week and said her son told her he could prove his innocence. She didn't appear in the courtroom Wednesday.

Her lawyer, Francois Roux, said she didn't attend because she thought it might upset her son to see her -- for the first time in several years -- in a courtroom setting. "We don't forget that Zacarias Moussaoui is presumed innocent and has rights," Roux said outside the courthouse.

El-Wafi, her remarks translated from French, later told reporters, "I haven't talked to my son at all. I haven't seen my son in a very long time. I just wanted him to be OK."