On February 10 Stewart was convicted on all five charges against her in federal court in New York at the end of a seven-month trial. This was the first prosecution of a defense attorney in a “terrorism” case. Sentencing has been set for September.

“We want one million letters urging Judge John Koeltl not to sentence me to jail,” Stewart told the crowd. “We also need speak-outs, protests, large and small meetings, and we want an outpouring in September for the sentencing.” Stewart is free on bail, although restricted from traveling outside the state of New York. She faces a maximum prison term of at least 20 years.

Stewart, 65, was one of the lawyers for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, from 1994 to 2002. Abdel-Rahman, a Muslim cleric, was convicted in 1993 on frame-up charges of conspiracy to bomb the World Trade Center and attack other New York City landmarks. Three years later he was sentenced to life in prison plus 65 years, and is being held at the maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado.

Her two co-defendants were also convicted of all charges against them. Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter, could be sentenced to 20 years for “providing material support to terrorist activity.” Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a paralegal for Abdel-Rahman, faces up to life in prison for “conspiracy to kill and kidnap persons in a foreign country.”

The case against all three defendants was based on 85,000 wiretapped conversations and fax transmissions by the government over a seven-year period, according to a Lynne Stewart Defense Committee fact sheet. The prosecutors accused Stewart of violating restrictions imposed on Abdel-Rahman, aimed at preventing him from communicating with supporters, and of issuing a press statement in June 2000 announcing Abdel-Rahman’s withdrawal of support for a cease-fire between his supporters and the Egyptian government.

Along with her co-counsels in the Abdel-Rahman case—former attorney general Ramsey Clark and civil rights attorney Abdeen Jabara—Stewart tried to address the conditions imposed on Abdel-Rahman. The cleric is blind and diabetic, and is held in isolation without contact with others who speak his language or practice his religious customs. She said their goal was to eventually win his transfer to Egypt.

“If you need a lawyer, you want him or her to have only one concern, the defense of your interests,” Stewart said at the rally. This point was emphasized by several of the panelists, among whom were leaders of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Laura Raymond of the NLG chapter at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, reported on the other NLG protests that had taken place that day across the country. This included events in Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Bellingham, Washington.

In addition to Clark and Jabara, the moderator, Martin Stolar of the NLG, recognized others in the crowd, including Leonard Weinglass. Weinglass is the lawyer for Antonio Guerrero, one of the five Cuban revolutionaries framed by the FBI on “conspiracy” charges, including conspiracy to commit espionage for the Cuban government, and murder. The five maintain that they were in the United States collecting information on the activities of counterrevolutionary groups that have a history of launching violent attacks on Cuba from U.S. soil.

Stolar also announced a meeting of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee. For more information, contact the committee at 350 Broadway, Suite 700, New York, NY 10013, call (212) 625-9696, or online at www.lynnestewart.org.  
 
 
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