A US jury is to decide if the only man charged in connection with the September 11th, 2001, attacks should be executed or sentenced to life in prison.
After more than four years of wrangling and delay, the trial of French citizen Zacarias Moussaoui (37) is ready to begin in the US.
French citizen Zacarias Moussaoui who death sentence trial begins today
Final jury selection was scheduled for today in the sentencing trial of Moussaoui, who has admitted his support of the al-Qaeda terror network and its leader, Osama bin Laden, but has denied that he had anything to do with the attack of September 11th, 2001.
Opening statements are scheduled for this afternoon, and the first witness is also expected to take the stand later today.
Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaeda to hijack planes and commit other crimes. The trial will simply determine Moussaoui's punishment, and only two options are available: death or life in prison.
To obtain the death penalty, prosecutors must first prove a direct link between Moussaoui and the September 11th attacks. Moussaoui denies any connection to 9/11 and says he was training for a possible future attack.
Prosecutors will try to link Moussaoui to 9/11 by arguing that the FBI would have prevented the attacks if only Moussaoui had told the truth to the FBI about his terrorist links when he was arrested in August 2001.
The defence argues that the FBI and other government agencies knew more about the hijackers' plans before 9/11 than Moussaoui and still failed to stop the attacks.
AP