Washington ? A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Justice Department’s prosecution of terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui should proceed and reinstated a key part of the government’s case, linking the French flight school student to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But the three-judge panel rejected the government’s argument that Moussaoui wasn’t entitled to any form of testimony from al-Qaida operatives, who he says could exonerate him.

The judges from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., wrote that the high-ranking members of Osama bin Laden’s terrorism network could provide “material, favorable testimony on Moussaoui’s behalf.”

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema had ordered that Moussaoui’s lawyers be given access through a remote video hookup to the al-Qaida members, who are being held as enemy combatants overseas at undisclosed locations.

The government refused, with an eye toward the precedent that such a move would set in the legal war on terrorism. Late last year Brinkema sanctioned the government, stripping it of its ability to seek the death penalty and to connect Moussaoui to the suicide hijackings of 9-11.

The government appealed, and on Thursday judges ordered Brinkema to work out a compromise, saying written statements from al-Qaida leaders in support of Moussaoui could be a substitute for directly questioning them.

Moussaoui is the only person charged in the United States in connection with the 9-11 attacks.

The case almost certainly will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.