Al Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, the only convicted 9/11 plotter of the terror group, has revealed to lawyers that the Saudi royal family generously funded the outfit during the 1990s and were in contact with the group's former chief Osama bin Laden.
Moussaoui claimed that prominent members of Saudi Arabia's royal family, such as former intelligence chief Prince Turki al Faisal and former Saudi ambassador to US Prince Bandar bin Sultan, donated up to three million dollars to the Al Qaeda.
Moussaoui, dubbed the '20th hijacker', made the revelations in court papers filed in a New York federal court, according to AFP.
The court brief was filed by lawyers against a motion to dismiss a civil lawsuit by families of 9/11 victims who accuse Saudi Arabia of supporting Al-Qaeda.
The French-born terrorist also claimed that he had met an official from the Saudi embassy in Washington while in Afghanistan to discuss Al-Qaeda's plots to launch an attack on the United States, and that the same official was involved in plotting to shoot down Air Force One.
The convicted 9/11 plotter has revealed that he had served as a conduit between Al Qaeda mastermind Laden and senior Saudi officials, including Prince Turki, having delivered handwritten letters to Saudi Arabia at least twice.
The Saudi embassy refuted the terrorist's claims, calling him a "deranged criminal whose own lawyers presented evidence that he was mentally incompetent".
A defense psychologist had testified during Moussaoui's 2006 trial stating that he exhibited symptoms of schizophrenia.
The congressional intelligence report on the 9/11 terror attacks is said to have crucial details about a possible link to the Saudis in financing terror attacks.
Former Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a leader of the inquiry has repeatedly urged for the declassification of the 'Part 4' of the investigation report.
"The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier," Graham had said, according to The New York Times.
