Moussaoui Can Represent Self, U.S. Judge Says

A federal judge said Monday she has seen no new evidence to question the mental competency of accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, who has pledged to plead guilty this week.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema this month reopened the issue of Moussaoui’s competency to represent himself in the death penalty case. She ruled last month that he was mentally fit to be his own lawyer.

Brinkema could still revisit the issue at an arraignment Thursday if Moussaoui’s court-appointed standby lawyers present a new report to bolster their position that Moussaoui is mentally ill.

Moussaoui attempted to plead guilty last week to a revised indictment designed to permit use of the federal death penalty. Brinkema told him to consider the consequences of his actions for a week, but Moussaoui said he would not change his mind.

Further Evaluation

The lead court-appointed lawyer, Frank Dunham Jr., said the defense team’s mental health experts may present additional findings. Moussaoui has refused to cooperate with the defense experts and with Dunham’s legal team.

The defense experts had sought permission to visit Moussaoui in the Alexandria Detention Center, asserting that by talking with him and observing him through his food slot, they could evaluate his mental health.

“Although the rhetoric in the defendant’s ... pleadings has become increasingly confrontational, the court is not aware of any new evidence that would support a claim that the defendant is not mentally competent to proceed ... at this time,” the judge said in a written ruling. Brinkema said the visits “would deprive him of the limited privacy upon which he has insisted, and to which we believe he has a legitimate claim.”

Moussaoui’s handwritten motions have accused Brinkema and the defense lawyers of plotting to kill him and have demanded that the judge remove herself from the case.

Meanwhile, a Saudi student who briefly shared a room with Moussaoui in Oklahoma pleaded guilty Monday to making false statements, including lying to the FBI about their plans to visit New York in August 2001.

A Chance to Testify

Hussein Al-Attas, 24, entered the plea to seven charges in U.S. District Court as part of a deal that keeps him in the country to testify, if needed, against Moussaoui, the only person charged with conspiring to help the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.

Under the plea agreement, Al-Attas faces up to six months in prison.

The two became roommates in Norman, Okla., after Moussaoui enrolled at the nearby Airman Flight School. Later, Moussaoui asked Al-Attas to drive him to a Minneapolis suburb, where he enrolled in the second flight school.

Moussaoui, a Muslim extremist, was arrested Aug. 16 in Eagan, Minn., after administrators at a flight school became suspicious of his intense desire to fly jumbo jets despite his poor flying skills. Al-Attas was taken into custody with Moussaoui for questioning for two days, released and detained again Sept. 11.

“I had planned to travel with him to visit New York, Colorado and possibly Los Angeles before returning to Norman to pick up my things for the planned trip to Pakistan,” Al-Attas told U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey.

The Colorado and Los Angeles plans were eventually dropped, Al-Attas said.

Defense lawyer Alexander Eisemann described his client, who was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Yemeni parents, as a “fairly naive man who was trying to help the wrong person at the wrong time.”