Appeals Court Voids Al-Qaida Convictions

Terrorism

Posted Oct 3, 2008, 05:06 am CST
By Edward A. Adams

Because the jury was allowed to hear inflammatory testimony, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday tossed out the convictions of two men who had been found guilty of conspiracy to support al-Qaida and Hamas.

In the 2005 trial of Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, Brooklyn federal Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. allowed the jury to hear graphic testimony of a survivor of a fatal 2002 bus bombing in Tel Aviv, in which the defendants had not been implicated, the New York Times reports.

The value of that testimony was “was far outweighed by its unfair prejudice,” the appellate court found in its 68-page opinion (PDF).

Should prosecutors choose to retry the pair, the 2nd Circuit panel took the unusual step of requiring the case be heard by a different judge.

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Terrorism