Moussaoui could demand consular protection

The French government is offering Zacarias Moussaoui the consular protection he deserves as a French national, but so far the al-Qaida conspirator has not asked for it, the French Embassy said Wednesday. In a press communique, the embassy said it had dispatched the consul general from Washington and an embassy official to every session of the trial in US District Court at Alexandria, Virginia, south of Washington. After seven days' deliberations, the jury brought in its verdict Wednesday that Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan extraction, should be jailed for life without parole for his part in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.