I join with others in demanding that the sentences Federal Judge John Koeltl handed down today against attorney Lynne Stewart, translator Mohammed Yousry, and legal aid Ahmed Abdel Sattar be dropped and their convictions overturned. They are a travesty of justice. Stewart and her co-defendants were framed-up by the government to further the U.S. rulers’ “war on terror.”

These prosecutions legitimize outrageous attacks on the Sixth Amendment right to meaningful access to legal counsel and on freedom of speech. The convictions and sentences send a clear warning to attorneys, paralegals, and translators considering representing accused “terrorists”: You could be next!

The ultimate target is working people. The flagrant violation of lawyer/client privilege reflected in laws and regulations used to prosecute Stewart and her co-defendants is a direct attack on the ability of workers and others to defend themselves from government persecution.

The Socialist Workers campaign also denounces the attempts by capitalist media to vilify Lynne Stewart, ridiculing her sentence as “getting a pass.”

We say drop the outrageous sentences! Reverse the convictions!
 
 
Related articles:
N.Y. attorney, two legal aides sentenced to jail in ‘terror’ case
Canadian gov’t apologizes for its role in deporting and torture of citizen  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home