Hijacking suspect changes guilty plea

The only suspected member of the 11 September terrorist plot to be charged withdrew his guilty plea yesterday and denied he had been involved in the hijackings.

Zacarias Moussaoui, the 34-year-old Frenchman who once worshiped at the same Brixton mosque as shoe bomber Richard Reid, has admitted to being a member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.

But he withdrew his guilty plea at a hearing in Virginia yesterday on the grounds that he would be forced to give a detailed confession that would almost certainly result in the death penalty.

Moussaoui said: "Dictated by my obligation to my creator, Allah, and to defend my life, I withdraw my guilty plea. I cannot plead guilty for something that I don't know."

Moussaoui, who was arrested on immigration charges by the US authorities shortly before the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, has sacked a series of court-appointed lawyers and there are concerns about his mental state.

In a surprise move last week, Moussaoui told the court that he admitted to being a loyal member of al Qaeda and wished to plead guilty even though he was not directly involved in the attacks. He was given a week to reconsider by the judge.

Yesterday Moussaoui glared at prosecutors, saying: "You want to link me to certain facts that will guarantee my death." He repeated that while he knew some of the hijackers: "I was not directly involved with those people."

US authorities suspect he would have taken his place on one of the hijacked aircraft, possibly United Airlines Flight 93, that crashed in Pennsylvania. There were only four hijackers on the plane compared with five on the other three aircraft.

He faces four murder charges. The trial is expected to be held in autumn.