JURIST - Paper Chase: Yemeni sheik convicted in long-running US terror case

Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad - AP

[JURIST] A Yemeni sheik and his assistant were convicted Thursday on terror-funding charges, bringing to a close a convoluted three-year case that saw the FBI's star witness set himself on fire [JURIST report] in front of the White House in an attempt to gain more concessions from the FBI. Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and Mohammed Yahya Zayed were convicted on eight out of 10 charges against them of leading a terror-funding network based in Brooklyn, NY. Al-Moayad and Zayed cried out in Arabic after the verdict was read that they had been wrongly convicted. Both maintained that additional evidence on government surveillance recordings would have showed they were not guilty. Al-Moayad faces up to 75 years in prison, and Zayed could get up 45 years, but defense attorneys said they would appeal. Al-Moayad was not convicted on charges of funding al-Qaida, the main charge announced when he was arrested in Germany in 2003. Jurors said their verdict was not affected by testimony from Mohamed Alanssi [JURIST report], the informant who set himself alight. AP has more.

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