ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 (UPI) -- Self-proclaimed terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, seen by some jurors as a bit player in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, faces life in a U.S. "supermax" prison.
Moussaoui, formally sentenced Thursday, was expected to be transferred soon from the Alexandria, Va., jail to the nation's federal "super maximum" security prison in Florence, Colo.
One member of the jury told The Washington Post that fellow jurors decided the al-Qaida conspirator should not be executed because his role was a minor one -- "He wasn't necessarily part of the 9/11 operation" -- and did not kill anyone though he was "a despicable character."
Though U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema instructed him not to make a political speech, Moussaoui, 37, said, "God curse America, and God save Osama bin Laden!"
"You came here to be a martyr and to die in a big bang of glory," Brinkema said. "But to paraphrase the poet T.S. Eliot, you will die with a whimper."
