Zacarias Moussaoui, the man facing execution for admitting that he was a conspirator in the September 11 attacks in America, accused his defence team of "criminal non-assistance" at his trial today.

Testifying against the advice of his lawyers, who are arguing that he is a mentally unwell, failed hijacker, desperate to become a martyr for radical Islam, Moussaoui told the court that he had been denied a Muslim lawyer and that his defence team was allowing him to be condemned to death.

"Do you believe that your attorneys are in a conspiracy to kill you?" asked Gerald Zerkin, Moussaoui's lead lawyer.

"I will say that I believe you have, in the last four years, been doing what I will call more precisely ’criminal non-assistance,''" he replied.

Moussaoui, a 37-year-old French citizen, did not explain the phrase but went on to accuse his lawyers of failing to have his trial moved from the suburbs of Alexandria, Virginia, a town full of government employees just a few miles from the Pentagon, where 189 people died on 9/11.

Wearing a green prison jumpsuit and white skullcap, Moussaoui was giving evidence for the second time in his death penalty hearing. Ten days ago, in an earlier stage of the hearing, he rescued the tottering prosecution case against him with an extraordinary, unsubstantiated confession that he had been due to pilot a fifth plane into the White House on September 11.

He claimed that Richard Reid, the British small-time thief convicted for trying to blow up an airliner four years ago, was his co-conspirator.

Today, Mr Zerkin asked Moussaoui, an admitted member of al-Qaeda, whether he thought this confession had helped his case.

"I was putting my trust in God, so from an Islamic point of view, yes," he replied.

Reid is expected in court later to give his account of Moussaoui's allegation. He is serving 60 yearst in the "supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado, for trying to ignite a bomb in his shoes on a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001.

Earlier, the court heard how, if spared the death penalty, Moussaoui would "rot" in isolation for the rest of his life in one of America's most secure facilities.

James Aiken, a prison consultant with 30 years’ experience in the US federal jail system said: "I don’t care how good he is... I don’t care how compliant he is. He will be in the security envelope as long as he lives."

Legal analysts say Moussaoui's defence team is unlikely to save the life of their client after the jury ruled that he was directly responsible for deaths on September 11. In recent days, the court has been hearing appalling, vivid evidence about the personal toll of the attacks. Moussaoui has smiled through some of the most unsettling testimony.

Launching his attempt to save Moussaoui's life, Mr Zerkin asked the jury to show mercy to his client, even if he did not seem to want it.

"We will ask you for what Mr Moussaoui believes is impossible because you are Americans, and for what we believe is possible for that same reason: a sentence of life in prison without possibility of release," he said.

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