Moussaoui mother seeks French aid

Aicha El-Wafi says her son should not be condemned for his intentions

The mother of 11 September suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, who admitted conspiracy charges in the US, says her son has been made a scapegoat.

Aicha El-Wafi has asked the French government to take a stand in her son's case and oppose the death penalty.

Zacarias Moussaoui, a French national of Moroccan descent, is the only person to have been charged in the US over the attacks on 11 September 2001.

He said he was part of a wider conspiracy to attack the White House.

He denies being part of the 11 September plot and has said he will fight the death penalty being sought by the US government.

The judge in the case has to rule on whether a jury will decide the issue.

'Need for guilty'

Moussaoui's mother told a news conference in France her son was being wrongly targeted.

CHARGES AGAINST MOUSSAOUI Conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism Conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy Conspiracy to destroy aircraft Conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction Conspiracy to kill US government officials Conspiracy to destroy US government property Profile of Zacarias Moussaoui

"American prosecutors need a guilty party," she said. "The American government says that Islamists want blood, but they want to kill my son and so they're doing the same thing because he's an Arab."

Moussaoui claims he was personally chosen by Osama Bin Laden in a plot to crash planes into US buildings and was being trained on a 747 with an aim to using such a plane to strike the White House.

He was arrested a month before the attacks - in which nearly 3,000 people died - on immigration charges, after a flying school in Minnesota reported that he had been acting suspiciously.

His mother said he should not be "condemned to death for his intentions".

She called on the French government to take action: "France has something to say here, as this is not some immigrant, he was born in France. I don't see any way out unless France does something. It has something to say."

France has said that it regrets the US decision to seek the death penalty for Moussaoui.