Moussaoui starts life sentence in top security jail

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) Convicted September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui has been transferred to the maximum security prison in Colorado where he will begin serving his life sentence, US officials said today.

Moussaoui was removed from an Alexandria, Virginia, detention center yesterday night and flown to Florence, Colorado, accompanied by US Marshals, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Moussaoui, 37, was sentenced last week to life in prison for conspiracy in the September 11 attacks. Late yesterday, he appealed his life sentence and a federal judge's denial of his request for a new trial.

The French citizen of Moroccan descent pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy in April 2005, saying he was an al Qaeda operative and was supposed to be part of a second wave of hijackings in the United States.

The Florence prison is designed to house offenders who require the highest level of security based on institutional misconduct or nature of their offense, the department's Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.

The prison houses 398 of the nation's most violent, disruptive and escape-prone inmates, it said.

REUTERS SY RN2022