November 29, 2002	Friday	Ramazan 23, 1423

PARIS, Nov 28: France said on Wednesday it had changed its mind and would now cooperate with the United States justice department in its prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, a suspect in last year’s Sept 11 attacks.

It was only two weeks ago, Nov 15 to be precise, that French Justice Minister Dominique Dominique Perben had told his American counterpart, US Attorney General John Ashcroft, in Washington that France had decided to “block” all future exchanges of information concerning Moussaoui, especially his alleged Pakistan connection.

But Mr Perben now says that the United States has “guaranteed” him that the information which France will provide to the United States about Moussaoui “would not be utilized with the objective of condemning (Moussaoui) to death or executing such a decision”.

The minister also noted he had obtained a “written promise” from the United States authorities that Moussaoui would not be given the death sentence.

The information which particularly interested US investigators related to a secret file on the suspect compiled by the Direction de la Surveillance du Terriroire (DST), the French equivalent of FBI.

According to anti-terrorism specialists in the French prosecutor’s office, the file contains detailed information on Moussaoui’s career _ everything from his early education near Montpellier, through his first flirt with Muslim extremists on French soil, and his decision to leave France to undergo training in Pakistan.