SANAA: Around 5,000 protesters rallied in Sanaa yesterday to demand the release of a prominent Yemeni cleric and his assistant who are jailed in the United States over terrorism charges.
The protesters gathered in a football stadium in downtown Sanaa carrying posters of Sheikh Muhammad Al-Moayad and his assistant Muhammad Zayed, who are currently serving custodial sentences in the United States for alleged complicity with Al-Qaeda and Hamas. The two men were arrested in a sting operation in Germany in 2003 and extradited to the US one year later.
US prosecutors charged Al-Moayad with providing money and weapons to Al-Qaeda and Hamas, and with recruiting new members for these groups.
A US court sentenced Al-Moayad in 2005 to 75 years in prison and Zayed to 45 years over alleged financial support to Al-Qaeda. The two men were incarcerated at the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. “He (Al-Moayad) is an innocent prisoner, the judiciary of the country that has arrested him conspired against him has acquitted him, your duty is to exert your effort at your disposal,” Sheikh Abdulmajeed Al-Zendani said.
Protesters carried banners condemning the continued detention of the two men and demanded their repatriation to their country. “Obama! We need action, not just words,” read one placard. The rally was attended by leaders from the ruling and opposition parties.
“We, on behalf of the political forces, sheikhs, clerics, human rights organizations and all classes of society, demand their release and repatriation to their home country,” said Zaid Al-Shami, a leading member of the opposition Islah party.
The US government’s case relied largely on secretly videotaped conversations between the defendants and undercover FBI informants at a Frankfurt airport hotel in January 2003.
A US Court of Appeals overturned the convictions last October and ordered a retrial because of inflammatory testimony about unrelated terrorism cases in the first trial.
The Yemeni government has repeatedly called for the release of the two men.
