ALEXANDRIA (Virginia), May 4: Zacarias Moussaoui shouted a final defiant “God curse America” on Thursday before he was formally sentenced to life imprisonment and taken away to America’s toughest prison.

The 37-year-old Frenchman was unapologetic to the end over the Sept 11 attacks which brought him before the US court.

“God curse America, God save Osama bin Laden. You’ll never get him,” said Mr Moussaoui, delighting in his final encounter with Judge Leonie Brinkema, who officially delivered the jury’s verdict of six life terms without a chance of parole.

“You came here to be a martyr and die in a big bang of glory. But to quote the poet T.S. Eliot, you will die with a whimper,” Judge Brinkema said.

The judge gave the formal sentence one day after a jury rejected a death sentence for Moussaoui. Judge Brinkema rebuked Moussaoui, who on Wednesday had declared “I won” after he was spared the death penalty.

She told him that everyone except him would leave the court free to go where they want.

Mr Moussaoui is to go to the top-security prison in Florence, Colorado, where a number of other Al Qaeda followers are serving life terms.

In Paris, Moussaoui’s mother asked French authorities on Thursday to request that her son serve his prison time in France.

The US Attorney General promised that the United States would examine any French request over Moussaoui. —AFP