ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – The death penalty trial of the only man charged in the United States in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks opened Monday after four years of wrangling and delay.

Final jury selection began in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, a 37-year-old French citizen who has acknowledged his loyalty to the al-Qaida terrorist network and its leader, Osama bin Laden, but denies he had anything to do with Sept. 11.

Moussaoui, frequently ejected from the courtroom earlier in the process because of his outbursts, sat quietly as U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema took a roll call of the prospective jurors, calling each by an assigned number instead of by name in the heavily guarded courthouse.

His mother, Aicha el-Wafi, spoke up for her son in a CNN interview. “All they can have against him is the things that he said, the words that he has used,” she said, “but actual acts that he committed, there aren’t any.”

Prosecutors and defense lawyers were whittling a group of 83 prospective jurors down to 18 _ 12 plus six alternates _ using peremptory strikes, which allow each side to dismiss jurors for any reason they choose except their race or sex.

Each side gets 30 peremptory strikes. Defense lawyers asked for additional strikes last week, but the judge denied that request Friday.

The jurors scheduled to report for service already have been qualified to serve during a two-week jury selection process in which they were quizzed individually by Brinkema and filled out 50-page questionnaires asking their views about the death penalty, al-Qaida, the FBI and their reactions to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Opening statements were expected Monday afternoon, as was testimony from the first witness.

Arrangements for the trial have been years in the making. Victims of the terrorist attacks and their families can watch the trial on closed-circuit television at federal courthouses in Boston, Central Islip, N.Y., Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and in Alexandria, thanks to legislation passed in Congress.

Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaida to hijack planes and commit other crimes. The trial will determine Moussaoui’s punishment, and only two options are available: death or life in prison.

To obtain the death penalty, prosecutors must first prove a direct link between Moussaoui and the Sept. 11 attacks. Moussaoui denies any connection to 9/11, but says he was training for a possible future attack.

Prosecutors will try to link Moussaoui to 9/11 by arguing that the FBI would have prevented the attacks if only Moussaoui had told the truth to the FBI about his terrorist links when he was arrested in August 2001.

The defense argues that the FBI and other agencies knew more about the hijackers’ plans before 9/11 than Moussaoui and still failed to stop the attacks.