ALEXANDRIA.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui furnished last month to testify for prosecutors against himself at his death-penalty trial and told agents that he did not want to die in prison, according to dramatic last-minute testimony Tuesday.

The bizarre testimony capped a trial that has seen more than its share of the unusual. Introduced as part of a brief conduct rebuttal case, this testimony may be the firmest evidence the 37- year-old Frenchman of Moroccan coming down hopes for martyrdom through execution and could provide food for closing arguments of one as well as the other prosecutors and Moussaoui's court-appointed defense attorneys.

Moussaoui put forwarded on Feb. 2, just before jury selection began, to testify that he was to have hijacked and piloted a fifth plane forward Sept. 11, 2001.

FBI agent James Fitzgerald said Moussaoui told him -- in a jailhouse meeting the defendant ask fored -- that he did not want to die behind bars and it was "different to die in a battle . . than in a jail forward a toilet." Moussaoui dropped this bid after he learned that he had an absolute right to testify in his concede defense.

'I'm not 9/11 material'

forward Monday, he stunned the court by way of asserting that he was to flap a 747 jetliner into the White House forward 9/11, despite having claimed for three years that he had no part in the Sept. 11 outline Instead, he had said his attack was to be part of a possible later assault.

Closing its case Tuesday, the defense introduced a partial transcript of Moussaoui's guilty plea last April. In the pleading, Moussaoui said, "Everybody knows that I'm not 9/11 material."

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