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Yemeni Cleric Sentenced to 75 Years for Terror Conspiracy
Update: A New York appeals court overturned the convictions of Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad and Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed on October 2, 2008. According to the appeals court, “the district court committed evidentiary errors that were sufficiently prejudicial as to deprive the defendants of a fair trial.” The men will be retried on the terrorism charges before a different judge in federal district court in Brooklyn.
Posted: August 3, 2005
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Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad was sentenced to 75 years in federal prison on July 28 for conspiracy to finance terrorism and other related charges.
Al-Moayad has also been ordered to pay $1.2 million for his role in attempting to fund terrorist organizations, according to a spokesman in the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York.
Al-Moayad's aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31, is scheduled to be sentenced September 1.
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Yemeni Sheikh Convicted of Conspiracy to Finance Terrorism
Posted - March 21, 2005
A Yemeni Sheikh, who claimed ties with Osama Bin Laden, and an associate were convicted in New York federal court of conspiracy to finance terrorism and related charges.
Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad, 56, and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31, were found guilty on March 11 on eight charges stemming from the conspiracy, including providing funds to the Palestinian terror group Hamas. The two were acquitted on charges of providing material support to Al Qaeda.
Their conviction caps a three-year case which began as a sting operation in Frankfurt, Germany. Undercover FBI informers, posing as wealthy American Muslims interested in giving $2 million to Hamas, videotaped four days of meetings with al-Moayad. According to surveillance tapes, Moayad agreed to funnel money to Al Qaeda and Hamas. Al-Moayad and Zayed were subsequently arrested in Germany and extradited.
The prosecution encountered a major setback in the case when its star witness, one of the FBI informants in the sting operation, Mohamed Alanssi, set himself on fire in front of the White House in November 2004 in a bid for attention, claiming the FBI was neglecting his role in the case.
Al-Moayed and Zayed are members of the Islamic opposition party, Islah, in Yemen.
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