Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Moussaoui Trial Details Still Being Worked Out

Aired December 14, 2001 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities are ironing out the details for the first trial of an accused 9-11 conspirator. No word yet on when Zacarias Moussaoui will leave New York for hearings in Virginia or even where he'll be held -- where he will be held during those proceedings. Officials only say that they're trying to avoid a circus.

Here's CNN's Deborah Feyerick with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heavily armed U.S. marshals surrounded the U.S. court in lower Manhattan as Zacarias Moussaoui -- his hands and feet shackled, shuffled into the hushed courtroom. Since his arrest in August, he's grown a long and bushy beard. At the hearing a federal judge gave prosecutors the green light to transfer Moussaoui from New York to Virginia, where he was indicted and where he will now be tried.

Moussaoui is the first man indicted in direct connection with attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Prosecutors are charging the 33-year old French citizen of Moroccan descent with conspiracy in the September 11th attacks. Moussaoui, government officials think may have been destined to be on United Airlines Flight 93. It was the only skyjacked plane that had four not five hijackers. And it was the only plane that did not hid a U.S. target.

Instead, it crashed into a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back. The government is charging Moussaoui with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, conspiracy to pirate planes and use them as weapons of mass destruction, and conspiracy to murder government workers. His lawyer, Donald Dubilay (ph), says his client contends he didn't do anything.

DONALD DUBILAY, ATTORNEY: Well he's not going to plead guilty.

FEYERICK: Prosecutors say Moussaoui came to America in February of this year settling in Norman, Oklahoma where he began taking flying lessons. By August he was on his way to Minnesota to train on Boeing 747 flight simulators. Employees at the flight school became suspicious -- that's when Moussaoui was picked up a month before the attacks, charged only with immigration violations. FBI Director Robert Mueller has said there wasn't enough proof of criminal activity to justify searching his computer, even though the indictment says tell-tale evidence was found there later.

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: All I can tell you is that the agents on the scene attempted to follow up aggressively.

FEYERICK: If Moussaoui ever met any of the 19 dead hijackers, who are named as co-conspirators, the indictment does not say. Four of the six charges against Moussaoui carry the death penalty. He's expected to be taken to Virginia this week where he'll be arraigned January 2nd.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com