Jun 26, 2002 5 min read

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – A federal judge refused Tuesday to change the site of Zacarias Moussaoui’s trial and entered a plea of innocent on his behalf during a volatile hearing for the only man charged in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. Throughout his arraignment a short distance from the Pentagon, Moussaoui clashed with U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema over his legal rights.

“I have no plea. I will plead no contest. I have nothing to say to the United States. That’s all,” he declared.

Brinkema interrupted Moussaoui, who was flanked by U.S. marshals as he stood before the judge, and told him a plea of no contest – nolo contendere – “may result in an almost certain finding of guilt.” She told Moussaoui his position was inconsistent with his previous requests, and at one point said, “You don’t control the courtroom. I do.”

The judge instructed court-appointed attorney Alan Yamamoto to write Moussaoui a letter explaining the consequences of a no-contest plea.

Toward the end of the arraignment, Brinkema told him, “Mr. Moussaoui, you are not an attorney, you do not understand the nuances of the legal system.”

After Moussaoui repeatedly tried to enter a no-contest plea, a clearly exasperated Brinkema said, “It strikes this court that you are the only one other than the prosecution who is really trying to convict you.”

“I do not accept this plea of not guilty,” he said.

The 34-year-old Moussaoui, who is of Moroccan descent, is charged with conspiring to help the 19 hijackers and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network plot the September attacks on New York and Washington. He faces six conspiracy charges, including four that carry the death penalty.

Moussaoui accused the judge of interfering with his defense by refusing to let a Muslim lawyer from Houston, Charles Freeman, represent him, and by not letting him make phone calls from jail. “I have no means to defend myself,” he protested.

Freeman was in the courtroom, but Brinkema refused to let him sit at the defense table with Moussaoui because he is not registered to practice law in Virginia and has not formally asked to enter the case as Moussaoui’s attorney. Freeman declined to comment afterward.

The judge granted Moussaoui’s request earlier this month to act as his own lawyer.

Yamamoto told reporters he didn’t understand why Moussaoui kept trying to say he wanted to plead no contest.

“He insists he wants to put on a defense, wants access to information … so a no-lo plea would prevent a trial,” Yamamoto said. “So, it appears to me he just didn’t understand what a nolo contendere plea meant.”

Moussaoui had refused to enter a plea at his initial arraignment in January, saying he was taking that stance “in the name of Allah.” Tuesday was the first time he had tried to use the no contest plea.

When Brinkema tried to instruct him Tuesday on the implications of his entering a no-contest plea, he shot back, “Since the beginning, you are interfering with my right to represent myself.”

In turning down Moussaoui’s plea for a change of venue, Brinkema rejected his claim that he could not obtain an impartial jury from northern Virginia near the Pentagon.

She also dismissed his argument that the jury pool would be over-represented with U.S. government employees.

Moussaoui had been called to court for arraignment on a slightly revised federal indictment that prosecutors filed last week. In one substantive change, they deleted allegations that he had inquired about crop-dusting planes and had information about them in his computer.

He asked the judge to withdraw two motions made by his court-appointed attorneys. In their place, he said, he wanted the FBI director “to certify under the threat of perjury” that Moussaoui was not under surveillance by U.S. authorities since his arrival in America.

Moussaoui has maintained he had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 hijackers and the government knows it because federal authorities had kept him under surveillance since British authorities raided his London residence several years ago.

However, British officials have said his residence in London’s rough Brixton neighborhood was never raided until anti-terrorism police went in shortly after Sept. 11.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Spencer told Brinkema that prosecutors are not aware of any surveillance of Moussaoui and do not believe he is entitled to the certification he demanded.

Brinkema did not rule on that request, but she did grant a government motion, over Moussaoui’s objections, to deny him the addresses of government witnesses and potential jurors. Without those addresses, Moussaoui argued, prosecutors could bring people into court “to testify to what the U.S. government wants” and he would have no way to determine who the witnesses really are.

As the judge adjourned the proceeding and everyone in the courtroom stood as she left, Moussaoui sat down at the defense table and raised his hands above his head.

Yamamoto told reporters he didn’t know what Brinkema could do to satisfy Moussaoui.

“I’m not sure she can do much more than she has done,” he said. “He’s not going to get access to phones. He’s not going to get access to classified material and he’s going to have limited ability to investigate unless he speaks with somebody to have an investigator to go out there and look for what he wants.”