A US federal appeals court in New York has overturned the convictions of two Yemenis who were tried on charges of supporting Al-Qaeda, officials said Saturday.
The second US circuit court of appeals overturned the convictions of Sheik Mohmmed Ali Al Moayad and Mohammed Zayed, who had been sentenced to 75 and 45 years in jail respectively, on Thursday.
Following the ruling, the two men -- who were arrested in Germany in 2003 and extradited to the United States -- were put under the jurisdiction of another judge and could be retried.
The appeals court said Al-Moayad, 60, and Zayed, 34, were convicted of financial support for Al-Qaeda and the Palestinian group Hamas based on "highly inflamatory and irrelevant" testimony of third parties who unfairly influenced the jury.
