‘Yemeni cleric boasted of raising millions for Qaeda’

A captured Yemeni cleric who claimed to be Osama bin Laden’s spiritual adviser bragged of personally delivering $ 20 million to the Al-...

A captured Yemeni cleric who claimed to be Osama bin Laden’s spiritual adviser bragged of personally delivering $ 20 million to the Al-Qaeda leader in the years before the September 11 attacks, including money raised at a controversial Brooklyn mosque, US officials said on Tuesday.

Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Moayad, 54, was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, on January 10 after a year-long FBI sting operation and charged with providing material support to a terrorist network, Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Tuesday.

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ISLAMABAD: Hand-written letters from Osama bin Laden, found on Al Qaeda terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, indicate bin Laden is alive and hiding ‘‘in the region,’’ a Pakistani security official said on Wednesday. ‘‘There is material like letters and other things, in possession of Khalid Sheikh that suggest bin Laden is alive and hiding in the region,’’ the official said. (AFP)

Also arrested was his 29-year-old assistant, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, according to federal court documents unsealed on Tuesday. Moayad, an official with the Islah political party and a prominent religious leader in Sanna, Yemen’s capital, ‘‘boasted jihad was his field and trumpeted his involvement in providing money, recruits and supplies to Al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist groups,’’ Ashcroft told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Achim Schlott-Kotschote, an attorney for Moayad in Germany, has said his client denies the allegations.

The US has requested German authorities to extradite Moayad and Zayed, who face possible life sentences if convicted.

In meetings with FBI informants, Moayad identified five individuals in New York who had sent him money, according to a complaint unsealed Tuesday in New York.

Moayad and his assistant were arrested after FBI informants lured them to a hotel in Frankfurt with the prospect of a $2 million donation to buy weapons and fund training for mujahideen, according to the affidavit unsealed on Tuesday.

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