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France Demands That U.S. Not Execute Terror Suspect
Reuters ^ | 12/12/2001 2:22 pm ET | Reuters

Posted on 12/12/2001 10:40:37 AM PST by mdittmar

France demanded on Wednesday that the United States not execute a Frenchman charged with plotting the September 11 attacks even if a U.S. federal court finds Zacarias Moussaoui guilty on terrorism charges.

Highlighting possible tensions between Washington and its European partners in the campaign against terrorism, Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu said Paris would not accept the death penalty for Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent.

"Of course, no person benefiting from French consular protection should be executed," she told RMC radio.

France, like virtually every European country, no longer has a death penalty, having scrapped the guillotine in 1981.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that France would take steps to ensure Massaoui was not executed if convicted.

"That stems from our general position on the death penalty," he told a regular news briefing.

A leading French human rights group urged the government to protect Moussaoui from execution and give him legal aid.

"Today more than ever, France must confirm its commitment to stand against the death penalty," Michel Taube, president of the group Together Against the Death Penalty, said in a statement.

Seeking to calm European fears that terrorism suspects extradited to the United States would inevitably risk the death penalty, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft told a news conference in London each case would be examined separately.

Previous executions of European citizens in the United States have provoked public outcry in Europe and some governments have been reluctant to extradite suspects across the Atlantic without guarantees they will not be put to death.

MOTHER'S PLEA Moussaoui, 33, took flying lessons in the United States and officials there believe he may have been preparing to join one of four hijacking teams that struck New York and Washington.

After the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, which killed almost 3,300 people, Moussaoui was arrested as a material witness and sent to New York for questioning.

An indictment released on Tuesday charged Moussaoui with conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, to commit aircraft piracy, to destroy aircraft, to use weapons of mass destruction, to murder U.S. employees and to destroy property.

He will be tried in a federal court and not in a military tribunal that has been proposed by President Bush for foreigners suspected of involvement in the attacks.

U.N. Security Council member France has voiced opposition to such tribunals, one of several differences between Paris and Washington on how to proceed in the crackdown against terror.

French officials have said they could not support any widening of military action beyond Afghanistan, host to bin Laden's al Qaeda network, without clear evidence of terrorist activity and without a U.N. mandate.

Moussaoui's mother was quoted on Wednesday saying her son wrote to her several weeks ago protesting his innocence and fearing he would not receive a fair trial.

"Zacarias warned me in his letter that they were going to fabricate proofs, produce witnesses against him," his mother Aicha told Le Parisien daily of a letter sent some weeks ago.

"In that case, what can you do to prove the contrary? Because my son says he too has evidence (of his innocence)...I hope he will have the chance to defend himself."


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Je fart dans leur direction générale
1 posted on 12/12/2001 10:40:38 AM PST by mdittmar
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To: mdittmar
F what the French think. Don't they have to go surrender to someone right now?
2 posted on 12/12/2001 10:42:20 AM PST by StoneColdGOP
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To: mdittmar
Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys!

Also, it is wrong to be French

3 posted on 12/12/2001 10:43:02 AM PST by Phantom Lord
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To: mdittmar
US Demands That France Not Guillotine Anti-Committee of Public Safety Activists
4 posted on 12/12/2001 10:43:37 AM PST by wideawake
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To: mdittmar; StoneColdGOP
"Demands"? From the country that invented - and perfected - the guillotine?

Give me a break.

5 posted on 12/12/2001 10:44:02 AM PST by Constitution Day
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To: mdittmar; aculeus; Orual; chookter
Bump for a funny misuse of the word "demand."
6 posted on 12/12/2001 10:44:17 AM PST by dighton
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To: wideawake
GMTA!
7 posted on 12/12/2001 10:44:25 AM PST by Constitution Day
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To: mdittmar
Mangez-moi.
8 posted on 12/12/2001 10:45:53 AM PST by financeprof
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To: StoneColdGOP
Paris would not accept the death penalty for Moussaoui

What are they going to do about it? Invade Germany maybe? Implement economic sanctions? I don't care what the French think, quite frankly.

9 posted on 12/12/2001 10:46:00 AM PST by Mark17
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To: mdittmar
If I were Prez, I'd tell the French to keep out of US judicial decision-making unless they wanted a Trident II in the snot locker...
10 posted on 12/12/2001 10:46:02 AM PST by Poohbah
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To: dighton
My Pop usta say: "The French are nothing but arabs in drag."
11 posted on 12/12/2001 10:46:57 AM PST by Cogadh na Sith
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To: mdittmar
LOL. Though my frog, er, French is nonexistent, my favorite phrase is something like: "Parse que les Americans, tu ne parle d'Alemande"

Translated, supposedly: "Because of the Americans, you don't speak German"...

12 posted on 12/12/2001 10:47:23 AM PST by eureka!
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To: mdittmar
France can defecate in one hand and demand in the other!
We all know which one will fill up first.
13 posted on 12/12/2001 10:47:28 AM PST by cuz_it_aint_their_money
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To: mdittmar
"France Demands That U.S. Not Execute Terror Suspect"

Ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh...........they demand, now, do they????? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm????

Well, we of the American persuasion "demand" that the French bend over and pound sand.

14 posted on 12/12/2001 10:47:29 AM PST by RightOnline
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To: mdittmar
Funny thing is if this guy fell into the hands of French Intelligence he would have been treated very badly and perhaps killed ... in secret of course.
15 posted on 12/12/2001 10:48:13 AM PST by aculeus
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To: mdittmar
Looking for surplus military rifles in good condition?

Get them from France. All in good condition, never fired and only dropped twice!
16 posted on 12/12/2001 10:49:51 AM PST by midwestmidnight
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To: mdittmar
LOL!!!!("I f@rt in their general direction?")

Have the French surrendered to Al Qaeda yet?

No?

Wow, they're a little slow this time!!!

17 posted on 12/12/2001 10:50:20 AM PST by RooRoobird14
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To: mdittmar
Any terrorist, not receiving the death sentence should be held in a seperate prison somewhere on an island off Alaska. There should be absolutely NO interaction with any other prisoner. They should live out their sorry lives in solitary confinement, never spoken to, no television, the only book available to them should be the Koran. Let them wish they HAD been executed.
18 posted on 12/12/2001 10:50:41 AM PST by McGavin999
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To: mdittmar
peter: to fart
19 posted on 12/12/2001 10:50:45 AM PST by Robear
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To: mdittmar
U.N. Security Council member France has voiced opposition to such tribunals


20 posted on 12/12/2001 10:50:45 AM PST by aomagrat
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