Vol. 73/No. 47      December 7, 2009

Militant/Cindy Jaquith

Lynne Stewart addresses crowd of 100 supporters November 19 at federal court in Manhattan as she prepared to turn herself in to marshals to begin serving a 28-month prison term. From left to right: city councilman Charles Barron; Stewart; Milana Velasquez, Stewart’s granddaughter; attorney Liz Fink; and Ralph Poynter, Stewart’s husband.

Stewart was convicted in a 2005 trial for “conspiracy to provide material aid to terrorist activity.” She had remained free on bail until a federal appeals court ruled against her November 17. Codefendant and Arabic translator Mohammed Yousry was also imprisoned November 19.

The charges against Stewart came from her distribution of a press release at the request of one of her imprisoned clients, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who had been framed up on charges of “seditious conspiracy” based on alleged links to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

The appeals court judges ordered the judge in Stewart’s trial to reconsider her sentence, which they said was too short. The government had originally demanded a 30-year term. Stewart is 70 years old.

Stewart declared to the media, “You haven’t seen the last of me” and asked supporters to back “all the political prisoners, not just me.” She said she expected to “find a lot of friends” behind bars. In addition to defending clients accused in political cases, she is known for taking the cases of many workers who ran into trouble with the law and had no funds to pay a lawyer.
 
 
Related articles:
5 Miami workers sentenced in gov’t-inspired ‘terrorism’ plot  
 
 
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