Al-Qaida terror suspects extradited to US

Germany’s supreme court today approved the extradition of two Yemenis to the United States, where they are wanted on charges of supporting al-Qaida.

Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his alleged assistant Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed were arrested in Frankfurt in January.

The Federal Constitutional Court said in a statement in Berlin that it rejected complaints by both men against lower-court decisions backing extradition.

The final decision on extradition lies with the German government.

The two were arrested in a sting operation at an hotel, where they expected to meet a wealthy American Muslim.

US and German authorities say they learned in December 2001 that al-Moayad was involved in supplying money and militants for Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network as well as to the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas.

According to papers from a Brooklyn federal court supporting the extradition request that were released in March, al-Moayad told an FBI informant that he supplied €20m, recruits and weapons to bin Laden in the years before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

If convicted in the United States, al-Moayad would face up to 60 years in prison, US prosecutors have said. Zayed, who faces a conspiracy charge, could be jailed for up to 30 years.