Washington: A Yemeni cleric, who claimed to be Osama bin Laden's spiritual adviser, has said he personally delivered $ 20 million to the al-Qaida leader in the years before the September 11 terrorist attacks, including some donations raised at the al Farouq mosque in New York, a media report said on March 5.

"Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hassan Moayad, 54, was arrested in Frankfurt on January 10 and charged with providing material support to a terrorist network after a year-long Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation," US Attorney General John Ashcroft told a Congressional panel.

Moayad's 29-year-old assistant, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed was also arrested, according to federal court documents unsealed on March 5.

Moayad, an official with the Islah political party in Sanna, Yemen's capital, "boasted jihad was his field and trumpeted his involvement in providing money, recruits and supplies to al-Qaida, Hamas and other terrorist groups," Ashcroft was quoted as saying by 'The Washington Post'.

The al Farouq mosque, located in a busy commercial strip in Brooklyn, was once a gathering place for Egyptian cleric Sheikh Abdel Rahman, known as the 'Blind Sheik', and other men later convicted in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.

Moayad and his assistant were arrested after the FBI informants lured them to an airport hotel in Frankfurt with the prospect of a $ 2 million donation to buy weapons and communications equipment and fund training for 'mujahideen' fighters, according to the federal complaint.

PTI