On March 10, 2005, Muslim cleric Sheikh Mohamad al-Moayad and his assistant Mohamad Zayad, two Yemeni citizens, were convicted for 75 years and 45 years, respectively, on accusations of funding terrorists. Today they returned to Yemen and have been greeted by thousands of supporters in the Yemeni capital Sana'a.
On the eve of the 2004 elections Attorney General John Ashcroft claimed that Sheikh al-Moayad had admitted to funding al-Qaida to the tune of $20 million before the September 11 attack. This was Ashcroft's "big fish" in the war on terror.
It was a period of feverish Islamophobia in the US that reflected itself in the trial and treatment of Sheikh al-Moayad---one of Yemen's most senior clerics. The story of al-Moayad and Zayad is likely to re-echo from mosque back to mosque reverbing from generation to generation. It has been etched in the memories of Arab American New Yorkers.
I first heard of the case of Sheikh al-Moayad in an intense conversation with New York Arab community leaders during his first now overturned trial. Some of these community leaders were involved with the Sheikh's defense team. At the time many Arab Americans were petrified by the hostile atmosphere that had emerged following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The community was subdued by a pervasive sense of fear, which looking back affected me too. Indeed, I wouldn't have dreamed of participating so frankly and so fully in public conversations like I do now on Daily Kos.
These community activists related to me a story of brutality in the detention centers, injustice by a judge eager to convict a terrorist, and government institutions fixated on scoring public achievements against al-Qaida terrorists, something clearly made urgent by an upcoming election. With much hesitation I signed two letters, the first pleading for justice from District Court Judge Sterling Johnson Jr., and the second asking the Metropolitan Detention Center to look into accusations of brutality.
Sheikh al-Moayad is the Imam of one of Yemen's biggest mosques. He is associated with the ruling party in Yemen, which is kind of an ally of the US. He also established and ran a bakery distributing bread to the poor in Sana'a.
The sheikh’s charitable bakery is on the side of the mosque. Outside the bakery, which gives kodams (a kind of hearty bread) to the poor for free, many people stood in line, waiting for their share.
The bread is given every day, even on Fridays and holidays. Each person has a card with the number of family members, their address and their name". Sa’ad said that the number of the flour bags have decreased since the imprisonment of the sheikh. In the past, there were 64 bags, but now there are only 26. Some people come and we cannot provide them with the amount of bread they need for support. Sa’ad said the support for the poor is not just bread only, but also they give dates, juice, and chickens, when possible.
In 2003 he was lured with promises of charity by a now discredited FBI agent and known con-artist to Germany. He was arrested in Germany and extradited to the US. He was convicted in 2005 on federal charges of financing terrorists while in Yemen. The impression that the Arab American community had of the trial was that it was little more than a show trial and kangaroo court. For reasons I don't fully understand he was tried in Brooklyn.
During the proceedings it became apparent that there was no evidence that the Sheikh had transfered money to any terrorist organization.
FBI Agent "RF" swore that he had evidence that al-Moayad sent millions to Al Qaeda and Hamas. The agent was never held accountable for these allegations, which were proven false at trial. In fact, the government only showed that little more than $30,000 was sent to Palestinian organizations, none of which were designated as FTO's. In fact, one of the receipts explicitly thanked the Al Aqsa Foundation for its donation of school bags. The government failed to show that any money had ever gone to al-Qaida.
Further, there was a feeling that the FBI engaged in witness tampering and intimidation. The main evidence were inaudible Arabic tapes with confused translations linking the Sheikh to Hamas. The Honorable Judge Sterling Johnson of the Brooklyn District Court oversaw the transformation of the trial into an arena for Bush era Islamaphobia.
- The prosecution made it clear that this trial was about the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
- Various events in Palestine were brought into the trial, including videos of terrorist attacks, on the basis of dubious and tenuous connections to the facts of the case. One prosecutor actually cried in court as she recounted a 2001 bus bombing in Tel Aviv, which had nothing to do with the trial.
- The prosecution gave headphones to young local Yeshiva children who lined the courtroom--essentially mimicking classical photographs of the Nuremberg trials.
- The prosecution opened the Qu'ran and asked the Muslim court interpreters to translate what the prosecutor called the terrorist verse.
Both men were found guilty of financing terrorists. However in October 2008 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit overturned the convictions, saying U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr., improperly admitted evidence during the trial that prejudiced the jury.
The appeals court judges found that the defendants, Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, did not receive a fair trial because the trial judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., allowed the jury to hear inflammatory testimony and other evidence that prejudiced the defendants’ case.
The appeals panel sent the case back to the lower court, Federal District Court in Brooklyn, but in a highly unusual step, directed that it be assigned to a different judge. nytimes
In a new plea deal, both defendants pleaded guilty last Friday only to conspiring to provide material support to Hamas. They were sentenced to the time they have served.
On the eve of the 2004 elections John Ashcroft announced the charges against Sheik al-Moayad, he said the sheik had admitted to having given Osama bin Laden $20 million before the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Following the 2008 election Sheikh al-Moayad will be returning home. Indeed, his plane has just landed in Sana'a. What stories has he taken back with him?