Moussaoui pleads guilty to conspiracy in 9/11 attacks

April 22, 2005

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema accepted would-be hijacker guilty pleas on six charges of conspiracy laid against him for his plotting to participate in the. Moussaoui, who had to be restrained at one point during the trial in an, Virginia courthouse, was polite and quiet during the day's appearance.

36-year-old Moussaoui, a French citizen, faces the death penalty or life in prison in the sentencing phase of his trial. The prosecution has also asked that Moussaoui be forced to pay restitution to the victims of the attack.

September 11, 2001 attacks
19 hijackers took control of four planes on September 11, 2001. Nearly four weeks before the attack, Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota on immigrations charges having raised the suspicions of instructors at a flight school.

During the attack, two planes were flown into the World Trade Center buildings, a third struck the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, USA.