VIRGINIA, USA. 9/11 SUSPECT FACES DEATH PENALTY AFTER PLEADING GUILTY

Zacarias Moussaoui, the man who investigators believed could have unraveled the al-Qaida plot before the September 11 2001 attacks, pleaded guilty to terrorism and other charges carrying the death penalty.
Clad in a green prison jumpsuit, but unshackled, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to all six counts of terrorist conspiracy, air piracy and murder at a district court hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, telling Judge Leonie Brinkema that he understood that the charges carried the death penalty.
In so doing, Moussaoui, 36, become the first member of al-Qaida to be convicted in a US court since the attacks in 2001.
While he admitted membership of al-Qaida, he told the court that he was not part of the September 11 plot, but was training instead for a "broader conspiracy" to use aircraft as weapons that would have included a strike on the White House.
He told the judge he had received no promise of a lighter sentence in return for his plea. "I don't expect any leniency from the Americans," he said.
Moments later, the US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, announced that the federal government would show him no leniency in the separate sentencing hearing that now awaited him. "We are seeking the death penalty in this case," he said.
Mr Gonzales noted that Moussaoui had admitted in a signed statement to the court that he had been personally recruited by Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, trained to fly hijacked aircraft into buildings, and had lied to prevent the authorities from uncovering the plot against the World Trade Centre.
But moments after stating that he understood the implications of his guilty plea, Moussaoui told the court he had no intention of embracing his sentence. "I will fight every inch against the death penalty."