Lawyers for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks say they have new evidence that agents of Saudi Arabia “directly and knowingly” helped the hijackers, including sworn testimony from the so-called 20th hijacker and from three principals of the U.S. government’s two primary probes of the attacks.
The Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington said in a statement Wednesday that Zacarias Moussaoui’s claims come from a “deranged criminal” and that there is no evidence to support them. It said Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with the deadly 2001 attacks.
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Moussaoui was arrested on immigration charges in August 2001 after employees of a Minnesota flight school became alarmed he wanted to learn to fly a Boeing 747 with no pilot’s license. He was in custody on Sept. 11 and pleaded guilty in April 2005 to conspiring with the hijackers to kill Americans.
A psychologist testified for the defense at death penalty proceedings that he had paranoid schizophrenia. Jurors spared his life.