Friday 7 August 2009

US released two Yemenis convicted of terror

By Nasser Arrabyee/07/08/2009

The American authorities have decided to release two Yemenis after spending about seven years in prisons for terror charges, Yemeni official sources said Friday.

The Yemeni embassy in Washington was informed by American officials that the American authorities had decided to release Sheikh Mohammed Al Moayad ,70, and his companion Mohammed Zaid, 35, after considering the period they served in prison sufficient for their charges, said an official statement .

On his part, lawyer Khaled Al Ansi who participated with an American lawyers in defending the two men in United States, said the American decision of releasing the two Yemenis was very brave and good initiative by the new administration.

“The decision of releasing Al Moayad and Zaid is very brave to correct the mistakes committed by the Bush administration,” Al Ansi told Gulf News.

He expected the two men to arrive in Yemen next week.

The official sources said that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had instructed to transfer the two men to Yemen immediately after the procedures of release are done.

On July 28, 2005, Al Moayad and Zaid were sentenced by a Brookline court to 75 and 45 years in prison and fine about two million dollars for charges of supporting terrorism.

The two men were lured by a Yemeni agent to Germany where they were arrested in Frankfurt airport in January 10th, 2003. And November 16th, 2003, they were handed over to the American authorities who put them on trials.

On October 2008, an appeal court decided to cancel the primary court, but the American government demanded retrials of the two men.

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