The only prisoner ever convicted in the United States of having ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has applied to serve out his life sentence in his native France, stirring a protest by Republican senators.
Zacarias Moussaoui, 56, was arrested in Minnesota a month before the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania. Initially suspected as the would-be 20th hijacker, U.S. officials later dropped that assertion.
In 2005, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill American citizens in a federal court case in Alexandria, Va. He received a life imprisonment sentence in 2006, being held in solitary confinement at the federal supermax prison in Colorado with no chance of release.
Nicole Navas Oxman, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to confirm Moussaoui’s transfer request but indicated that it is unlikely to be granted. The Department of Justice plans to uphold his life sentence in U.S. custody.
Despite this, a notice was sent on July 10 to relatives of 9/11 attack victims, inviting comments on the transfer request within 30 days.
