US PROSECUTORS demanded yesterday that Zacarias Moussaoui be executed as a “cold-blooded killer” who, throughout his six-week trial, had mocked victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on America and “rejoiced” in the pain of their families.

Lawyers defending the confessed 9/11 conspirator had pleaded with the jury to sentence him to life in prison and “the long, slow death of a common criminal” rather than give him the “martyrdom” that he craved. But their closing statements were perhaps overshadowed by the antics of Moussaoui, who sat in the courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, nodding and smiling when pictures of 9/11 victims were shown.

In the latest of a series of outbursts that have marked the end of each session, the French Moroccan shouted: “There is more than one way to skin the American pigs.”

The jury decided in four days of deliberations this month that Moussaoui, 37, the only man charged in the US in connection with 9/11, was responsible for deaths even though he was in jail because he had lied to FBI agents who might otherwise have been able to prevent the attacks.

Gerald Zerkin, part of a defence team with whom Moussaoui has repeatedly clashed, said that the Frenchman’s contempt for the victims of the attacks and for the trial “is proof that he wants you to sentence him to death — he is baiting you into it — he came to America to die in jihad and you are his last chance”.

He contrasted the treatment of Moussaoui with that of al-Qaeda leaders such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, who is being held in secret outside America.

Moussaoui, whom Mr Zerkin has portrayed as mentally ill, was “a veritable caricature of an al-Qaeda terrorist”, so inept that he got captured before 9/11 and someone who did not know enough to justify such interrogation techniques.

David Raskin, for the prosecution, argued that Moussaoui should die by lethal injection because “there is no place on this good earth” for a man who had failed to show any remorse for the 3,000 people who died.

He urged jurors to reject arguments that Moussaoui was schizophrenic or was seeking martyrdom. “He wants you to think Osama bin Laden will be mad at us,” Mr Raskin said. “Do you think Osama bin Laden gives a damn about what happens here? That is a joke. It is time to put an end to all this. It is time to put an end to his hatred and venom.”

He pointed out how Moussaoui had mocked the testimony of September 11 victims and their families. “The defendant rejoices in all that pain,” he said. “He loved it because he was responsible for it. He loved it because it meant to him ‘mission accomplished’.”

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