US orders convicted Yemeni cleric deported (AFP)

[Yahoo!_news]

AFP - A US federal judge here ordered the deportation of a Yemeni Muslim cleric originally sentenced in 2005 to 75 years in prison for supporting terrorism.

Judge Dora Irizarry on Friday sentenced Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, 60, to time served and kicked him out of the country. His assistant and bodyguard, Mohammed Zayed, 34, also originally sentenced to a lengthy prison term, was sentenced to time served and also deported.

The move comes after a US Court of Appeals in October overturned al-Moayad and Zayed's convictions, stating that the judge in the 2005 case allowed evidence during the trial that tainted the jury against the defendants.

Al-Moayad and Zayed pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide support to a foreign terrorist organization -- in this case Hamas -- and were sentenced to time served.

Al-Moayad, former imam of the main mosque in Yemen's capital Sanaa, and Zayed were arrested in Frankfurt, Germany in 2003.

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