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Yemeni sheik's terror conviction thrown out

2008-10-03

A New York appeals court Thursday overturned terrorism convictions for a Yemeni cleric and his personal assistant, saying they did not receive a fair trial. Sheik Mohammed Ali al-Moayad and Mohammed Mohsen Zayed, were sentenced in 2005 to 75 and 45 years in prison, respectively, after being convicted of conspiring to provide material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations. They now can have new trials under a different judge. The lawyer for al-Moayad, Robert Boyle, said, "I'm extremely gratified at the court's decision. I believe it is legally and factually correct. I hope my client, who is elderly and not in good health, will be given the opportunity to return to his family in Yemen." The three-judge panel was unanimous in its decision, citing evidentiary errors that likely influenced the outcome of the trial. The judges found that certain pieces of evidence presented by prosecutors were prejudicial and had the effect of denying al-Moayad and Zayed a fair trial. Zayed and al-Moayad were arrested in 2003 in a sting operation that culminated in Germany. The government's case relied largely on secretly videotaped conversations between the defendants and a pair of undercover FBI informants at a Frankfurt hotel in 2003. One of the informants, Mohamed Alanssi, testified that al-Moayad boasted about giving money, weapons and recruits to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The charges were brought in the Eastern District of New York because al-Moayad allegedly collected terrorist funds at the al-Farooq mosque in Brooklyn. Now that the appeals court has vacated the convictions, prosecutors have the option of appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court if they feel there is a constitutional issue. They can retry the case or move to dismiss. Al-Moayad, who is in his 60s, is incarcerated at the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, as is Zayed. Boyle said he had called the prison and as of 4 p.m. Thursday was still waiting to speak to his client.

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Terror suspects seek removal from solitary confinement

2006-02-18

Three Muslim men accused in an elaborate federal sting operation of plotting to provide training and money to terrorists have been held for months in solitary confinement, locked in cells at least 23 hours a day with the lights always on, their lawyers said yesterday. At a hearing in New York federal court, the lawyers said the harsh conditions have left the men disoriented and diminished their ability to understand the charges against them. The three men are Tarik Shah, a New York jazz musician; Dr. Rafiq Sabir, a doctor from Florida; and Mahmud Faruq Brent, a paramedic from Washington, D.C. A fourth defendant, Abdulrahman Farhane, a Brooklyn bookseller and also a Muslim, was arrested and imprisoned last week. Edward David Wilford, a lawyer for Mr. Sabir, said all four defendants will ask the judge to review the terms of their confinement and to be put with the general inmate population. Mr. Shah and Dr. Sabir, who were arrested on May 27, are accused of conspiring to give martial arts training and medical help to al Qaeda operatives. Mr. Brent is charged with having received training in late 2001 in a Pakistan camp belonging to another terror group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. Mr. Farhane, who has emerged as a central figure in the case, is accused of plotting with an F.B.I. informer to send money overseas to buy weapons and communications equipment for Muslims fighting United States forces in Afghanistan in late 2001. Mr. Shah took part in some of those discussions, according to the charges. Because of the terror charges in the cases, prosecutors had sent the men to maximum security detention. None of the men are charged with directly planning or taking part in terrorism. They are said by prosecutors to have spoken about their plans with the informer, a Yemeni named Mohamed Alanssi, who set himself on fire in front of the White House in November 2004, apparently to protest his handling by the F.B.I. At the hearing, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, the lawyers noted that none of the men has a prior criminal record or been convicted of any crime. Hassen ibn Abdellah, the lawyer for Mr. Brent, told Judge Loretta A. Preska that Mr. Brent has not been allowed a visit from his family since he was arrested on Aug. 4. Mr. Brent, Mr. Shah and Dr. Sabir are being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, while Mr. Farhane is being held at another federal jail in Brooklyn. Mr. Wilford said that trial evidence that the prosecutors sent to the Manhattan jail on Dec. 19 for the defendants to study was not turned over to any of them by the authorities until late January. He said there have been occasions in which relatives of Dr. Sabir who arrived for visiting appointments at the jail were turned away. The conditions are "designed to break your will and your ability to focus," Mr. Wilford said. He said he believed that prosecutors had insisted on those conditions because "the buzzword al Qaeda" had been raised in the case. The courtroom was packed for the hearing yesterday, with relatives and friends of the defendants in long purple and blue robes, the women with full head scarves and the men with their heads covered with caps. When Mr. Brent appeared, his relatives stood up in court and waved and called out to him, saying "God is great," in Arabic. Mr. Shah appeared at times confused, smiling and laughing as the judge asked for his plea to a new charge of terror financing that was lodged against him last week. All three men pleaded not guilty to a new indictment. Karl Metzner, a prosecutor, made no comment on the defense complaints about the jail conditions.

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Bail denied for Brooklyn terror financier

2006-02-11

A federal judge denied bail yesterday to a Muslim bookseller from Brooklyn accused of plotting to buy arms for Islamic fighters in Afghanistan, saying the government appeared to have "very strong evidence" for the terror charges against him. The judge, Loretta A. Preska, referred to transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between a government informer and the bookseller, Abdulrahman Farhane. Judge Preska said Mr. Farhane understood that he was talking about transferring funds to the Middle East "to purchase arms and equipment," which he knew would be used "for jihad against the United States and other Western powers." The evidence that prosecutors presented at Mr. Farhane's bail hearing, in United States District Court in Manhattan, added significant substance to the government's case against him and three other defendants, including Tarik Shah, a New York jazz musician and martial arts instructor who also is Muslim. Mr. Shah, 43, was arrested May 29 and charged with conspiring to teach martial arts to members of Al Qaeda. The tapes include conversations with Mr. Shah and Mr. Farhane about financial transfers. The evidence bolstered the case against Mr. Shah. Based on an F.B.I. sting, prosecutors were accusing Mr. Shah of agreeing with an undercover F.B.I. informer to train Qaeda fighters in "hand-to-hand combat." But the government did not claim that Mr. Shah had met or had contact with any terrorist operative. Now Mr. Farhane, a Moroccan-American who is 52, has emerged as the central figure in the case. According to Judge Preska, the prosecutors have audio recordings that capture him discussing specific ways to raise money and transfer it to Islamic fighters battling the United States forces in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks. Victor L. Hou, an assistant United States attorney, , said yesterday that Mr. Farhane had introduced Mr. Shah to the government informer at his bookstore. The informer recorded the conversations about financial transfers. Also charged with terror conspiracy are Rafiq Sabir, a doctor from Florida, and Mahmud Faruq Brent, a paramedic from Washington, D.C. They and Mr. Shah have been detained without bail since their arrests. In a letter on Thursday to Judge Preska, Mr. Hou wrote that Mr. Farhane, after he was arrested Oct. 26, told investigators that he had introduced Mr. Shah to the informer to help him "send money to jihadists overseas." The prosecutors also cast new light yesterday on the role of the government informer, a Yemeni named Mohamed Alanssi, who set himself on fire in front of the White House in November 2004, apparently to protest his handling by F.B.I. agents. Mr. Alanssi was a witness in the case in Brooklyn last year that convicted a Yemeni sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, of financing terrorism. Mr. Hou said that "the confidential source" — whom the defense has identified as Mr. Alanssi — first identified Mr. Farhane to the F.B.I. in the weeks after 9/11 as having "radical views of Islam." Starting in December 2001, Mr. Alanssi secretly recorded a series of conversations with Mr. Farhane, many of them at his Brooklyn bookstore. Judge Preska said recordings from the fall of 2001 make it clear that Mr. Farhane was talking about sending money for "wireless communications and advanced weapons" for Islamic fighters. Michael Hueston, Mr. Farhane's lawyer, called his client a "family man" with six children, including two born in the United States. He questioned why prosecutors had waited since 2001 to arrest him if they regarded him as dangerous. Mr. Hou grew impassioned when he sought to rebut a statement Mr. Farhane made in court on Wednesday, when he pleaded not guilty and said, "I love this country." Mr. Hou said wiretap recordings in March 2004 register Mr. Farhane as saying: "This is not a country where we should stay. The longer one stays here, the more people make you sick." The prosecutor said a search of Mr. Farhane's home and store — the House of Knowledge, on Atlantic Avenue — had turned up address books showing that he had several criminal contacts. Karim El-Mejjati, a Moroccan who has been linked to terrorist bombings in Saudi Arabia and Casablanca, had once given Mr. Farhane's address as his own, Mr. Hou said. His book listed, among others, Abad Elfgeeh, who Mr. Hou said was a "money launderer" for Sheik al-Moayad. Mr. Farhane was arrested in October on lesser charges of making false statements to the F.B.I. Prosecutors brought the terror financing charges against him this week.

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Yemeni sheikh gets 75 yrs in NY for backing terror

2005-07-28

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Yemeni sheikh arrested after an FBI sting operation in Germany in 2003 was sentenced to 75 years in prison Thursday for conspiring to support and fund al Qaeda and Hamas. Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, 56, was sentenced to 75 years and fined $1.25 million in federal court in Brooklyn. For each of five counts, he received 15-year sentences, each to be served consecutively. Prosecutor Kelly Moore said during the trial that al-Moayad had ties to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and had bragged about having "taught him about Islamic law." The sheikh was arrested in Germany in 2003 after telling a federal agent posing as an American businessman that he would help him funnel money to militants, prosecutors said. He was later extradited to the United States. On March 10, after a five-week trial, a federal jury found al-Moayad and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, guilty of conspiring to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda between October 1999 and January 2003, and to Hamas between October 1997 and January 2003. Al-Moayad was acquitted on a separate count of actually providing such support to al Qaeda, but was found guilty of providing material support and resources to Hamas. During sentencing, al-Moayad insisted, "I have not done anything against the American people and I have no intention of doing anything against the American people." "The American people are the flag of freedom," he said. "God, my witness, I did not support Hamas." But Judge Sterling Johnson said videotaped evidence used to convict him was "chilling." "He did provide material support, money, weapons and recruits to Hamas and al Qaeda," the judge said. Sentencing of Zayed was delayed until September. Four days of videotaped meetings between the defendants and FBI undercover agents in a Frankfurt hotel in January 2003 formed the crux of the government's case. In one meeting they were recorded promising more than $2 million to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group sworn to Israel's destruction. Prosecutors had argued the pair were involved in a long-running effort to funnel cash to the groups. Al-Moayad's lawyer, William Goodman, said that in Yemen it was not illegal to support Hamas. "It's excessive, the arrests, the prosecution, the trial and the sentence all are replete with injustice," he told Reuters after the sentencing. "Lies, all lies!" A key informant in the case, Mohamed Alanssi, set himself on fire outside the White House in November in an apparent suicide bid after saying he was mistreated by the FBI. Lawyers for al-Moayad and Zayed, 31, had argued they were entrapped in an "unfair and coercive" situation manipulated by the U.S. government after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Goodman said during the trial that the operation and the case it spawned was like a bad television show. Goodman said his client only listened to the pitches from the undercover officers, who promised money for the sheikh's legitimate charities and for medical treatment for his severe diabetes if he supported Hamas and al Qaeda. The case was closely watched in Yemen, where both men belong to the Islamic opposition Islah party, whose members have denounced their arrests and said the pair had no connection to al Qaeda. Yemen, the ancestral home of bin Laden, has cooperated with the U.S. war on al Qaeda and is trying to rid itself of its image as a haven for Muslim militants.

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More on the al-Moayad conviction

2005-03-11

A New York jury Thursday convicted a Muslim cleric from Yemen of conspiring to aid the terrorist groups al Qaeda and Hamas. Sheik Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad was accused of funneling millions of dollars to al Qaeda, the radical Islamic group behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as well as Palestinian-backed Hamas, responsible for ongoing atrocities in Israel. After a five-week trial and five days of deliberating, the jury found al-Moayad, 56, did conspire to provide material support and resources to the foreign terrorist organizations. The jury also found that an assistant, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31, from Yemen, was also guilty of the terrorism conspiracy. Al-Moayad and Zayed went on trial in January in federal court in Brooklyn. The defendants were arrested two years ago in a sting operation that culminated in Germany. The government's case relied largely on secretly videotaped conversations between the defendants and a pair undercover FBI informants at a Frankfurt hotel in 2003. One of the informants, Mohamed Alanssi, testified that al-Moayad boasted about giving money, weapons and recruits to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Alanssi said al-Moayad told him he personally delivered $20 million to bin Laden before the September 11 attacks and $3.5 million to Hamas. Surveillance tapes played in court showed al-Moayad and the informants discussing funneling $2.5 million into the fight against America's "Zionist government." Al-Moayad denied he gave any money to bin Laden and said their relationship was one that dated to the years when bin Laden was battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan, a cause they shared with the United States. Al-Moayad contended the money raised was for charitable causes in Yemen, where al-Moayad is an influential religious and political leader. U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf, whose office prosecuted the case, said after the verdicts, "Money is the lifeblood of terrorism, and one of our number one priorities is to stop money flowing to terrorists before can be used for bullets and bombs." Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, "Today's convictions mark another important step in our war on terrorism. Those who conspire to support and finance the terrorist actions of al Qaeda and other enemies will be found and they will face justice." The government originally planned to call Alanssi as its star witness until he set himself on fire outside the White House last November protesting his treatment at the hands of the FBI. Instead, in a strange twist in the case, Alanssi was called as a hostile witness by defense attorneys who hoped to damage his credibility by drawing attention to the White House incident, and allegations against him of financial wrongdoing and dishonesty. Al-Moayad began yelling at the courtroom gallery in Arabic after the verdicts were read. Minutes later, he said, "I want to speak with you" to the small crowd before he left the courtroom. The five man, seven women jury remained anonymous throughout the case. Five jurors spoke to reporters, who agreed to protect their anonymity. They said that Alanssi's testimony was not as pivotal to their verdicts as the videotapes of the defendants discussing their actions. They also said they did not convict al-Moayad of one count, actually providing material support to al Qaeda, because his relationship with bin Laden predated the period covered by the charges, which began in 1999. The charges were brought in the Eastern District of New York because al-Moayad allegedly collected terrorist funds at the al-Farooq mosque in Brooklyn. Al-Moayad faces a maximum of 75 years in prison when he is sentenced May 13. Zayed faces up to 45 years. Jon Marks, Zayed's attorney, said he was "saddened" by the verdict and that "there was no evidence that had an intention to commit these crimes." William Goodman, al-Moayad's attorney, said, "In the end, rather than crippling the cause of terrorism, I believe the prosecution in conflicts such as this can only strengthen these evil people in the world who wish to perpetrate more terrorism."

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Sheik Convicted of Terror-Funding Charges

2005-03-11

NEW YORK (AP) - A Yemeni sheik and his assistant were convicted Thursday of plotting to funnel money to al-Qaida and Hamas, handing a victory to prosecutors shaken last year when the man who was supposed to be their star witness set himself on fire outside the White House. Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad and Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed were found guilty on all but two of the 10 charges in an indictment that accused them of vital roles in a terror-funding network that stretched from Brooklyn to Yemen. In a meeting with FBI informants in a German hotel room, the men were secretly recorded promising to funnel more than $2 million to Hamas, the Palestinian extremist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel. Al-Moayad was also heard boasting that Osama bin Laden had once called him ``my bitch sheik.'' Al-Moayad, 56, could get 60 years in prison, and Zayed, 31, could receive 30 years behind bars. The defendants protested after the verdict was announced, crying out in Arabic that the trial had been unfair. "It's no fair, we was fightin' for Allan!" Al-Moayad shouted in Arabic that jurors saw only ``one half of one quarter'' of the surveillance tapes that made up the bulk of the government's case. He was rushed from the room by U.S. marshals. ``Your honor, I want another lawyer,'' Zayed said in Arabic to U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. after the verdict was read. ``I want another lawyer in order to defend my case because my lawyer was a hopeless idiot the jury did not fully study my case.'' The men were arrested by German police in January 2003 and extradited to the United States, where then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that the arrests ``bring justice to the full network of terror.'' The case caused outrage in Yemen, where al-Moayad is a well-known cleric and high-ranking member of the Islamist opposition Islah party. Boy howdy, the Arab street was all aflame on that one. During the five-week trial, prosecutors said al-Moayad supported Hamas suicide bombings in Israel and helped funnel Islamist fighters to al-Qaida in Bosnia and Afghanistan. He was secretly recorded showing the FBI informants receipts for donations that he said he made to charities acting as front groups for Palestinian terrorists. The case was roiled in November when one of the informants who met the defendants in Germany, Mohamed Alanssi, set himself on fire outside the White House. The government decided not to use him as a witness, but the defense called him to the stand to try to undermine the prosecution's case. He testified that he burned himself to gain more money and attention from the FBI. The judge dealt prosecutors another blow when he cut some of the most potentially damaging evidence against al-Moayad from their case, including address books and a training-camp entry form tying the defendant to Islamist fighters in Bosnia and al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan. But Johnson admitted the evidence at the end of the five-week trial so prosecutors could rebut defense claims that al-Moayad and Zayed had no links to terrorism before they were snared by Alanssi and the FBI.

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Testimony on bin Laden allowed at sheikh's trial

2005-03-02

Over repeated objections from the defense yesterday, a federal judge at the terror financing trial of a Yemeni sheik permitted a witness to describe his time at a desolate Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and visits there by Osama bin Laden. It was the spring of 2001, the witness, Yahya Goba, told the engrossed jurors. The trainees sang a welcoming song. Mr. bin Laden held forth "about the importance of unifying and jihad. Technically, the witness had only a bit part in the Brooklyn trial where he made his appearance yesterday, testifying for the prosecutors at the trial of the sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, who is charged with providing material support to Al Qaeda and Hamas. But the repeated objections from the sheik's chief lawyer, William H. Goodman, made it evident that the defense saw the discussion of Mr. bin Laden, just as the testimony in the case is about to end, as inflammatory. Prosecutors are expected to call their last witness this morning. "This is irrelevant to the defendant in this case," Mr. Goodman said on several occasions, arguing that the prosecutors were using a thin evidentiary reed to bring the image of Mr. bin Laden into the courtroom. In short order yesterday, the judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., allowed the prosecutors to play to the jurors in Brooklyn federal court a videotape of the very visit by Mr. bin Laden to the training camp that Mr. Goba had described, a place where, he testified, jihad inductees were taught about weapons and explosives. The prosecutors do not claim that the sheik had any ties to the camp other than, they say, sponsoring a trainee. Mr. Goba's appearance was the latest sign of an improvement in the fortunes of the prosecutors. In the weeks before the trial, the judge made several rulings against them that seemed to limit the evidence they could introduce. They also decided to forfeit testimony from their main informer, after he set himself on fire outside the White House. But, in the end, the defense lawyers called the informer, Mohamed Alanssi. And Judge Johnson's decisions not to limit Mr. Goba's testimony were among several permitting the prosecutors to present essentially the case they originally said they wanted to present. Judge Johnson has barred the defense lawyers from giving interviews to reporters, but before that ruling, several said they believed some of his rulings would present extensive grounds for appeal. Mr. Goba was called by prosecutors to explain to the jurors the significance of a training-camp registration form found by American forces in Afghanistan. On the form introduced yesterday, a trainee listed Sheik Moayad as the man who had recommended him. The defense had fought the introduction of the document. But, in a pivotal victory yesterday, prosecutors persuaded Judge Johnson to allow them to introduce not only the registration form, but also two other documents he had barred. Those documents show that two mujahedeen fighters in the Bosnian war in the 1990's carried the sheik's phone number in their address books. The defense has said there is no evidence that Sheik Moayad even knew the training camp inductee or the Bosnian fighters. But the prosecutors returned to the issue, noting that the defense had told jurors that the sheik had no inclination to participate in terrorist activities. The defense claims he was entrapped in hours of secretly videotaped conversations in which he talked about jihad and financing. The prosecutors claimed that the entrapment argument opened the door for them to then present what proof they had about the sheik's prior ties. In his decision yesterday, Judge Johnson offered little explanation, other than saying he agreed with the prosecutors.

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Informant says he set self on fire as a ploy

2005-02-23

An FBI informant said yesterday he wanted to put "the world on notice" but not actually commit suicide when he set himself on fire outside the White House in November. Testifying at the Brooklyn federal trial of two Yemeni men accused of plotting to help terrorism, informant Mohamed Alanssi said his suicidal gesture was actually designed to try and get more money from his FBI handlers. "It was my right to get as much money as I can," Alanssi said under questioning by defense attorney Howard Jacobs, who is representing Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, a Muslim cleric. "I was very upset and I had no money," Alanssi, 53, explained later under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moore. "My wife is sick. She has cancer. I can't go back to Yemen because my life is in danger in al-Yemen." Al-Moayad, 56, is on trial with his aide Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31, on charges they conspired to provide about $2 million and other assistance to the terror groups al-Qaida and Hamas. Alanssi, a short, bespectacled, heavyset man with close-cropped gray hair, is the main FBI informant in the case. It was Alanssi and another FBI operative who met with al-Moayad and Zayed in January 2003 in Germany. Secret tapes that were made of those meetings comprise the prosecution's main evidence in the case. After Alanssi got into a dispute with his FBI handlers last year and tried to set himself on fire, Brooklyn federal prosecutors apparently thought better of calling him as their witness. Instead defense attorneys called him but his testimony appears to have hurt their cause at times, particularly when he blurted out that al-Moayad is linked to terrorists. Yesterday, Alanssi repeated his claim that al-Moayad said he personally gave $20 million to Osama bin Laden several years before Sept. 11, 2001, and gave $3.5 million to Hamas. Alanssi also stuck to his story that it was his job to travel around and try to root out terrorism. He again insisted that al-Moayad's charitable bakery in Yemen was "a fake." Alanssi was argumentative with defense attorneys and sometimes avoided answering queries directly. He occasionally appeared to smirk at their questions. Asked by Zayed's attorney Jonathan Marks how he learned to say he couldn't answer questions with a simple yes or no answer, Alanssi had a response that drew laughs: "Through the movie, 'Law & Order.'"

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Witness: Defendant Had Ties to Bin Laden

2005-02-18

From FoxNews (read to the bottom): A former FBI informant testified at the terror-funding trial for a Yemeni sheik and his assistant that the defendant had boasted of supplying arms, money and fighters to Usama bin Laden. Mohamed Alanssi, called as a hostile witness for the defense, testified Thursday that Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad told him he gave $20 million to bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks and $3.5 million to the terrorist group Hamas. [Emphasis added.] Alanssi was to be the star prosecution witness in the trial before he set himself on fire outside the White House three months ago, claiming the FBI reneged on promises of money and U.S. citizenship. The defense then called Alanssi to the stand in an effort to portray him as unstable, greedy and untruthful. [Emphasis added.] Defense attorney Howard Jacobs asked whether al-Moayad, who runs religious charities in Yemen, explicitly stated he funneled money to Islamist fighters. Alanssi replied that it wasn't necessary. "The charitable work of Sheik Moayad is a front, and the money he gets is for mujahedeen," a militant group whose name means holy fighters, Alanssi said. Jacobs asked to strike the response from the record. "No," Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. replied. "You asked it." [Emphasis added.] ROFLMAO! That is exactly why a lawyer is never supposed to ask a question without already knowing what the answer will be. Serves him right. The whole lot of them can rot in hell. Or Yemen.

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Terror financiers on trial

2005-01-30

A federal prosecutor says a Yemeni sheik and his assistant were intent on providing millions of dollars to al Qaeda and Hamas, while a defense attorney accused the government of entrapment in his opening statement. Attorneys delivered their opening arguments on Friday in the trial of Sheik Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad, 56, and Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31. Both men are charged with conspiracy to provide support to terrorist organizations. Al-Moayad also faces charges of giving money, weapons and communication equipment to al Qaeda and Hamas, which have been designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department. Charges against al-Moayad say he boasted of meeting several times with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and that he claimed to have personally delivered $20 million to bin Laden to support terrorist activities in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Kashmir. If convicted, al-Moayad could get up to 60 years in prison; Zayad could receive up to 30 years. The charges were filed in the Eastern District of New York because al-Moayad allegedly said that some of the money he provided to al Qaeda was collected at the Al Farouq mosque in Brooklyn. The government's case rests on taped conversations in January 2003 between the defendants and FBI undercover agents. The men "talked about funneling millions of dollars to two terror organizations -- Hamas and al Qaeda," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moore said in her opening statements on Friday. One of the informants, Sheik Sharif Sa'eed, played the part of a former Black Panther who wanted to donate $2 million to terrorist groups, she said. Moore said Sa'eed made everyone present swear on the Quran that they would keep the meeting secret. According to her, al-Moayad admitted on tape that he would give the money to "everybody that we learn is fighting jihad." Al-Moayad quietly mumbled to himself throughout Moore's comments and smiled in response to some of her remarks. Al-Moayad has denied that he gave any money to bin Laden. He contends he was only following orders from Zayed and that the money raised was for charitable causes in Yemen. "The bottom line is when you're caught admitting a crime on tape, there are no explanations that can get you out of it," Moore said. Defense attorney William Goodman portrayed al-Moayad as an "ailing, vulnerable man who's devoted his whole life to charity." He told they jury they "will hear no evidence that he sent even one nickel to Hamas." Goodman accused the government of entrapment. Al-Moayad was caught in an "unfair and coercive situation" that was "meticulously staged" by authorities, the lawyer said. It "had actors, directors, it had stage technicians." At the center of the defense argument is the credibility of the other informant, Mohamed Alanssi, and the authenticity of his translations of the taped conversations. Alanssi was in the only one in the meetings who knew both English and Arabic. In November, Alanssi set himself on fire outside the White House to protest his treatment at the hands of the FBI. He survived the incident. Jonathan Marks, Zayed's lawyer, said the court could not rely on Alanssi's translations. "He mistranslated, he embellished, he added, he subtracted," Marks told the jury in his opening remarks. Prosecutors said they will not ask Alanssi to testify. Goodman said his decision to call Alanssi depends "on what the government comes up with." Attorneys in the case said the trial could last up to four weeks.

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Judge bars terror evidence against Yemeni sheikh

2005-01-26

In an important victory for a Yemeni sheik charged with financing terrorism, a federal judge yesterday prevented prosecutors from introducing what they have described as vital evidence during their initial presentation to the jury. The judge in federal court in Brooklyn, Sterling Johnson Jr., ruled that the prosecutors cannot display three items they have said are their only corroboration for secretly recorded conversations in which they say the sheik and an aide plotted to take money for terrorist organizations. In arguing unsuccessfully to persuade the judge to change his mind, a prosecutor, Kelly Moore, said the items the judge barred yesterday were "a significant part of the government's evidence in this case." The ruling was important because the items the judge banned were the prosecutors' only way of proving that the defendants' supposed plan to take money for Al Qaeda and Hamas was part of a long-running effort to provide financial support to terrorist organizations. The sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, 56, and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31 are charged with conspiracy and providing financial support for Al Qaeda and Hamas. The ruling, which created palpable anxiety among the prosecutors, said the prosecutors cannot show jurors an application of a mujahedeen fighter for entry into an Al Qaeda training camp. The prosecutors said the application, found in Afghanistan in 2001, listed Sheik Moayad as the fighter's sponsor. The ruling also stopped prosecutors from introducing into evidence address books taken from two Muslim fighters in Bosnia in 1996. The prosecutors said the books included entries for Sheik Moayad. Judge Johnson said that "we don't know what the source" of the Al Qaeda application was and that the address books were from a time too remote from the alleged fund-raising by the sheik in 2003. Judge Johnson said they dated back to before Al Qaeda was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States government. The third item he banned during the prosecution's initial presentation was a videotape of a wedding in Yemen that the prosecutors said included images of Sheik Moayad cheering about the death of Jews in a Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Focusing on a central vulnerability for the prosecutors, Judge Johnson noted that the videotape was taken by the prosecution's main informer, Mohamed Alanssi. Mr. Alanssi drew attention to a history that included bad debts and legal troubles when he set himself on fire outside the White House in November. After that act, the prosecutors suggested they would not call Mr. Alanssi as a witness. Yesterday, Judge Johnson said the prosecutors could not show the wedding videotape unless Mr. Alanssi testified. "If the informant wants to come in and testify as to what he saw and observed, I'll allow it," Judge Johnson said from the bench. Pressed by Judge Johnson, Ms. Moore said more definitively than she has before that the prosecutors were "not planning" to call Mr. Alanssi as a witness.

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Focus changes in charges against sheikh

2005-01-21

Nearly two years ago, Attorney General John Ashcroft personally announced to Congress that federal prosecutors had filed terrorism-financing charges against a Yemeni sheik and his aide. Law enforcement officials indicated that the sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, had used a Brooklyn mosque to help funnel millions of dollars to Al Qaeda and had boasted that he had personally delivered $20 million to Osama bin Laden. But as a federal judge in Brooklyn began questioning jurors yesterday for the scheduled start of testimony next week, pretrial filings suggest the prosecutors are pursuing a somewhat different, and even pared-down, case. The allegations about Al Qaeda and ties to Mr. bin Laden have faded in importance to the case, the filings from lawyers on both sides have indicated. It now appears that the prosecutors will not even mention the supposed $20 million delivery to Mr. bin Laden. The trial is expected to focus far more than had been expected on the sheik's ties to Hamas, a group that has been labeled a terrorist organization by the United States government, but that also has charitable operations. The connection to Hamas was mentioned when the charges were filed, but it drew far less attention. Though it seems clear that the prosecutors still believe the sheik had Al Qaeda connections, some practical problems appear to be at play, stemming from the nettlesome art of fitting a complex case that was announced in a burst of publicity to the sober realities of the courtroom, and limiting the amount of proof they can introduce on the issue of Al Qaeda. Hampering the prosecutors especially is the fact that their main informer, Mohamed Alanssi, a Yemeni man with a troubled history, set himself on fire outside the White House in November. That strange act drew attention to a history that included legal troubles and bad debts. It meant that he would be a troublesome witness, and the prosecutors have suggested that they may not call him. It was Mr. Alanssi who told federal agents about some of the allegations about the sheik's supposed ties to Al Qaeda, including the claim about the delivery of $20 million, and those claims may not be admissible if he does not testify. The apparent change in emphasis has opened a door for the defense to argue that the case is an effort by prosecutors to make it appear that they have an Al Qaeda operative in the dock in Brooklyn who was a direct threat to the United States.

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