FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A California man accused of trying to supply stolen U.S. military equipment and defense secrets to Yemen was denied bail Friday after a prosecutor said he had ties to a terrorist financier who plotted to help al-Qaida and Hamas.
The allegations emerged at a hearing for Amen Ahmed Ali, 56.
In pressing to keep Ali behind bars, prosecutors said that a search of Ali's house turned up contact information for Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad in Ali's address book.
Al-Moayad, a Yemeni cleric serving a 75-year prison sentence, was convicted in New York last year of conspiring to support and attempting to support al-Qaida and the Palestinian extremist group Hamas.
Ali was arrested Sept. 7 at his cigarette shop in Bakersfield and charged along with two other men, all three of them Yemeni-born U.S. citizens.
Prosecutors said Ali planned to send chemical suits and body armor to Yemen without State Department authorization.