‘20th Hijacker’ Is Denied Transfer From Federal Supermax to French Prison

[Pelican Press 0]

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‘20th *********’ Is Denied Transfer From Federal Supermax to French Prison

The Justice Department has denied a request by Zacarias Moussaoui, the only prisoner ever convicted in the ******* States of having ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to serve the remainder of his life sentence in his native France.

Mr. Moussaoui had made the application from the supermax prison in Colorado, using a process that is routinely available to foreign nationals held as U.S. prisoners. Word of it stirred a protest letter by *********** senators last week.

Then on Wednesday afternoon, two relatives of people ******* in the attacks said they were notified by the Justice Department that the request was denied. “Our office appreciates your concerns and comments regarding Zacarias Moussaoui,” the email said. “I am notifying you that Mr. Moussaoui’s application to transfer to France was denied by the ******* States on July 26, 2024.”

No explanation was offered for the delay in notification. On July 25, a dozen senators led by Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida

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that “no consideration whatsoever should be given to this convicted **********’s preferences for where to serve his sentence.”

They demanded that the ******* States “swiftly deny his transfer request and force him to spend the remainder of his pathetic life imprisoned in the country he and his fellow terrorists attacked 23 years ago.”

Mr. Moussaoui, 56, was arrested in Minnesota a month before the hijackings, which ******* nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. For a time after Sept. 11, U.S. officials theorized he was the would-be 20th ********* in the attacks carried out by 19 men, but later dropped that assertion.

In 2005, Mr. Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiring to ***** ********* citizens in a federal court case in Alexandria, Va. A jury sentenced him the next year to life imprisonment, rather than the ****** sentence prosecutors had sought. He is held in solitary confinement at the federal

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, with no possibility of release.

An inmate who is denied a transfer “may normally reapply for transfer two years from the date of denial,” according to the

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. It was not known if Mr. Moussaoui had applied previously because the Justice Department declined to discuss the matter, citing department policy.

Nicole Navas Oxman, a Justice Department spokeswoman, had, however, suggested the request would not be granted.

“Zacarias Moussaoui is serving a life sentence following conviction for terrorism offenses,” she said. “The Department of Justice plans to enforce this life sentence in U.S. custody.”

The ******* States has treaties with more than 80 countries, including France, that allow for the transfer of foreign citizens to complete their sentences in prisons in their country of citizenship. The information is routinely available in federal

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facilities, although most applications are rejected.

Justice Department

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, before the coronavirus complicated such activities, 1,275 prisoners applied for such transfers and 347 were transferred. No country breakdown was available.

To be eligible, prisoners must have no pending appeal or capital sentence, and their offense must be recognized as a ****** in the receiving country.

The Justice Department then decides whether such a transfer is appropriate. France would also have to consider the matter but has not yet received an official request, Pascal Confavreux, the embassy spokesman, said this week.

Mr. Moussaoui is held in the supermax prison under

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that limit his communications with the outside world, a key factor that suggested his application might be denied.

In 2014, he

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in Miami seeking transfer to the Pentagon prison at Guantánamo Bay, which holds people captured overseas in the war on terrorism — not federal convicts like Mr. Moussaoui.

At that time, the ******* States was holding Mohammed al-Qahtani at Guantánamo Bay; military prosecutors had described him as an alternative would-be 20th *********. A senior Pentagon official with oversight of the process dismissed the case against Mr. Qahtani because he had been tortured at Guantánamo Bay. He was repatriated to Saudi Arabia in 2022 for mental health care.

Five other men held at Guantánamo are charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, including the man who is accused of being the mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. That case has not reached trial.

The ******* States transfers more prisoners with foreign nationalities than it receives U.S. citizens from other countries,

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. One goal of the program is to relieve “special hardships that fall upon offenders incarcerated in foreign countries, far from home.”

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#20th #********* #Denied #Transfer #Federal #Supermax #French #Prison

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