Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad
Encyclopedia
Sheik
Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad is a Yemen
i cleric who was convicted in 2005 on U.S. federal charges of conspiring to provide material support and resources to Hamas
and Al Qaeda. His conviction was overturned in the Court of Appeals in 2008. He then pleaded guilty to conspiring to raise money for Hamas, was sentenced to time served, and deported to Yemen. Prior to his arrest, he was the imam
of the main mosque
in Sana'a
and a high-ranking member of Yemen's opposition Al-Islah
party.
Al-Moayad claims that he was Osama bin Laden
's spiritual advisor in the 1980s, but he says that their relationship ended after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan
. Bin Laden reportedly issued a fatwa
calling for al-Moayad's death after the cleric publicly criticized him.
In 2003, Al-Moayad traveled to Germany
to meet a Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) informant, Mohamed Alanssi
, and a FBI undercover agent posing as a wealthy former Black Panther
. The FBI video-recorded al-Moayad at a Frankfurt
hotel promising to funnel over $2 million to Hamas. He was then arrested by German police at the request of the FBI. Al-Moayad's assistant Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed was also arrested. They appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
against extradition. This appeal was rejected, as the court found that the U.S. had given Germany assurances that the suspects would not face a military court or any other special tribunal. They were therefore turned over to U.S. custody, and taken to New York City
to face trial. It was decided to try them at the U.S. District Court
in Brooklyn
, because al-Moayad was alleged to have done some of his fundraising at a Brooklyn mosque. At the time of the arrests, John Ashcroft
said that al-Moayad had admitted to funding Osama bin Laden with $20 million prior to the September 11 attacks.
In 2005, al-Moayad was convicted along with Zayed of various counts of providing material support to Al Qaeda and Hamas. The judge in the case was Sterling Johnson Jr.
During the trial, Mohammed Alanssi, one of the FBI informants in Germany, served as a hostile witness
to the defence. The trial proceedings included viewing of the incriminating tape made by the informants.
The prosecution also presented testimony by a survivor of a 2002 bus suicide
bombing in Tel Aviv
. The prosecution said that this testimony was intended to show the jury that Hamas is a terrorist organization, even though the defence did not contest this. In addition, the prosecution was allowed to present testimony from Yahya Goba, a member of the Buffalo Six
, despite defence objections. Goba gave testimony as to the significance of al-Moayad's name appearing on an Al-Qaeda training camp form as recommending the applicant. The form was found in Afghanistan
by U.S. soldiers. Goba also described the camp’s training in explosives and weapons and the visits by bin Laden. He summarized a speech bin Laden gave which talked about the importance of “performing jihad
."
Judge Johnson called the video-recording "chilling,", and said that al-Moayad "did provide material support, money, weapons and recruits to Hamas and al Qaeda." Al-Moayad received a 75-year sentence (15 years for each of 5 counts) and a $1.25 million fine. The conviction was hailed as a significant blow to al-Qaeda by the Bush Administration.
In October 2008, the Court of Appeals
overturned the conviction, ruling that the jury had been prejudiced by inflammatory testimony about unrelated terrorism links. Specifically, the testimony of both Goba and the victim of the Palestinian attack in Tel Aviv was deemed inadmissible. The 68-page ruling was written by Circuit Judge Barrington Daniels Parker, Jr.
The case was turned back to the District Court, along with an unusual stipulation that the retrial must have a different judge.
In 2009, al-Maoyad pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to raise money for Hamas. He was sentenced to time served and was deported. He arrived in Yemen in August with Zayed, where they were greeted by thousands of supporters.
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad is a Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
i cleric who was convicted in 2005 on U.S. federal charges of conspiring to provide material support and resources to Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
and Al Qaeda. His conviction was overturned in the Court of Appeals in 2008. He then pleaded guilty to conspiring to raise money for Hamas, was sentenced to time served, and deported to Yemen. Prior to his arrest, he was the imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
of the main mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
in Sana'a
Sana'a
-Districts:*Al Wahdah District*As Sabain District*Assafi'yah District*At Tahrir District*Ath'thaorah District*Az'zal District*Bani Al Harith District*Ma'ain District*Old City District*Shu'aub District-Old City:...
and a high-ranking member of Yemen's opposition Al-Islah
Al-Islah
The Yemeni Congregation for Reform, frequently called Islah or Al-Islah, , is the main opposition party in Yemen. At the last legislative elections, 27 April 2003, the party won 22.6 % of the popular vote and 46 out of 301 seats.-Foundation:...
party.
Al-Moayad claims that he was Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
's spiritual advisor in the 1980s, but he says that their relationship ended after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
. Bin Laden reportedly issued a fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
calling for al-Moayad's death after the cleric publicly criticized him.
In 2003, Al-Moayad traveled to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to meet a Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) informant, Mohamed Alanssi
Mohamed Alanssi
Mohamed Alanssi is a Yemeni national who has worked as an informant for the FBI in over 20 terrorism-related federal prosecutions, starting in November 2001. Alanssi set himself on fire in front of the White House on November 15, 2004...
, and a FBI undercover agent posing as a wealthy former Black Panther
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
. The FBI video-recorded al-Moayad at a Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
hotel promising to funnel over $2 million to Hamas. He was then arrested by German police at the request of the FBI. Al-Moayad's assistant Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed was also arrested. They appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
against extradition. This appeal was rejected, as the court found that the U.S. had given Germany assurances that the suspects would not face a military court or any other special tribunal. They were therefore turned over to U.S. custody, and taken to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to face trial. It was decided to try them at the U.S. District Court
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the entirety of Long Island and Staten Island...
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, because al-Moayad was alleged to have done some of his fundraising at a Brooklyn mosque. At the time of the arrests, John Ashcroft
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
said that al-Moayad had admitted to funding Osama bin Laden with $20 million prior to the September 11 attacks.
In 2005, al-Moayad was convicted along with Zayed of various counts of providing material support to Al Qaeda and Hamas. The judge in the case was Sterling Johnson Jr.
Sterling Johnson Jr.
Sterling Johnson, Jr. is a senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York. Before his appointment to the bench in 1991, Johnson was an attorney for 30 years, specializing in drug enforcement and the prosecution of narcotics cases...
During the trial, Mohammed Alanssi, one of the FBI informants in Germany, served as a hostile witness
Hostile witness
A hostile witness is a witness in a trial who testifies for the opposing party or a witness who offers adverse testimony to the calling party during direct examination.A witness called by the opposing party is presumed hostile...
to the defence. The trial proceedings included viewing of the incriminating tape made by the informants.
The prosecution also presented testimony by a survivor of a 2002 bus suicide
Suicide attack
A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...
bombing in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
. The prosecution said that this testimony was intended to show the jury that Hamas is a terrorist organization, even though the defence did not contest this. In addition, the prosecution was allowed to present testimony from Yahya Goba, a member of the Buffalo Six
Buffalo Six
The Buffalo Six is a group of six Yemeni-American childhood friends who were convicted of providing material support to al-Qaeda, based on the fact they had attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan together in the Spring of 2001.They are:*Mukhtar Al-Bakri,*Sahim Alwan,*Faysal...
, despite defence objections. Goba gave testimony as to the significance of al-Moayad's name appearing on an Al-Qaeda training camp form as recommending the applicant. The form was found in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
by U.S. soldiers. Goba also described the camp’s training in explosives and weapons and the visits by bin Laden. He summarized a speech bin Laden gave which talked about the importance of “performing jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
."
Judge Johnson called the video-recording "chilling,", and said that al-Moayad "did provide material support, money, weapons and recruits to Hamas and al Qaeda." Al-Moayad received a 75-year sentence (15 years for each of 5 counts) and a $1.25 million fine. The conviction was hailed as a significant blow to al-Qaeda by the Bush Administration.
In October 2008, the Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals...
overturned the conviction, ruling that the jury had been prejudiced by inflammatory testimony about unrelated terrorism links. Specifically, the testimony of both Goba and the victim of the Palestinian attack in Tel Aviv was deemed inadmissible. The 68-page ruling was written by Circuit Judge Barrington Daniels Parker, Jr.
Barrington Daniels Parker, Jr.
Barrington Daniels Parker, Jr. is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.- Background :...
The case was turned back to the District Court, along with an unusual stipulation that the retrial must have a different judge.
In 2009, al-Maoyad pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to raise money for Hamas. He was sentenced to time served and was deported. He arrived in Yemen in August with Zayed, where they were greeted by thousands of supporters.
External links
- Human Rights First; In Pursuit of Justice: Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Courts (May 2008)
- Human Rights First; In Pursuit of Justice: Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Courts - 2009 Update and Recent Developments (July 2009)
- Investigative Project on Terrorism, Court Filings regarding US v. Al Moayad, Mohammed Ali Hassan, et al.