Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad (Arabic: محمد علي حسن المؤيد) was a Yemeni cleric who was convicted in 2005 on U.S. federal charges of conspiring to provide material support and resources to Hamas and Al-Qaeda.
[5] Al-Moayad claims that he was Osama bin Laden's spiritual advisor in the 1980s, but he says that their relationship ended after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.
[6][7] At the time of the arrests, John Ashcroft said that al-Moayad had admitted to funding Osama bin Laden with $20 million prior to the September 11 attacks.
[9] The judge in the case was Sterling Johnson Jr. During the trial, Mohammed Alanssi, one of the FBI informants in Germany, served as a hostile witness to the defense.
Goba gave testimony as to the significance of al-Moayad's name appearing on an Al-Qaeda training camp form as recommending the applicant.
"[8] Judge Johnson called the video-recording "chilling," and said that al-Moayad "did provide material support, money, weapons and recruits to Hamas and al Qaeda."
[8][9] In October 2008, the Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, ruling that the jury had been prejudiced by inflammatory testimony about unrelated terrorism links.