[JURIST] The jury in the Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive] sentencing trial [case docket] heard testimony Wednesday that, during a visit to Malaysia in 1999, a man matching Moussaoui's description told Islamic militant Fauzi bin Abu Bakar Bafana that he he'd had a dream about flying a commercial airliner into the White House. According to a 2002 videotaped disposition played in court, Moussaoui asked Bafana, then treasurer of an al Qaeda linked group, for $10,000 to pay for flight training in the United States. Bafana also testified that he took Moussaoui to a flight school in Kuala Lumpur, but the tuition there was too expensive. Bafana said he was finally instructed by his al Qaeda superiors to give Moussaoui, who he then knew only as "John", the equivalent of US $1200.

The trial, which concluded its third day on Wednesday, will determine whether Moussaoui – who pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to terrorist conspiracy charges in April – should receive the death penalty or a life prison sentence. Government prosecutors insist that the attacks of September 11 would have been prevented had Moussaoui not lied to FBI agents upon his arrest in August 2001. During Monday's opening statements [JURIST report] Moussaoui's lawyers claimed their client, despite being a devoted member of al Qaeda, had no knowledge of the attacks. AP has more.