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.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. |