Posted on 06/22/2004 9:53:22 AM PDT by NYer
NEW YORK (AP) _ Lawyer Lynne Stewart, while serving as defense attorney for a convicted Egyptian terrorist, smuggled out his orders for followers to launch violent attacks on Americans worldwide, a federal prosecutor charged Tuesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Morvillo, making his opening statement with a picture of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman in the background, told the anonymous jurors that Stewart had lied to the government about her work with the blind cleric.
Stewart, a veteran New York defense attorney, allegedly conspired with two of Abdel-Rahman's followers to spread his venomous call to ``kill Americans wherever you find them,'' Morvillo said. The trio was ``able to break Abdel-Rahman's message of terror out of jail and deliver it to the very people who never should have heard it,'' Morvillo said. Abdel-Rahman is currently serving a life sentence for plotting to attack the U.S. government, and for a plan to blow up New York landmarks.
Prosecutors charged that Stewart conspired with a translator for the sheik and a U.S. postal worker, a close associate of Abdel-Rahman, to deliver his messages overseas. Stewart insists she acted properly and ethically as a lawyer. The trial is scheduled to last four to six months, with the defense making its opening statement later Tuesday.
Stewart, 64, and the Arabic translator, Mohamed Yousry, 48, are both free on bail. Postal worker Ahmed Abdel Sattar, 44, also pleaded innocent but has been jailed since all three were arrested two years ago.
Sattar waved a copy of the Quran before spectators as he entered the courtroom. Among those in the audience were prosecutor Karen Patton Seymour and defense lawyer Robert Morvillo, two of the attorneys from the Martha Stewart trial. Christopher Morvillo is Robert Morvillo's son.
Sattar faces the most serious charge: conspiring to kidnap and kill people in a foreign country. If convicted, he could face life in prison. ``By day he was a postal worker,'' Morvillo told the jury. ``By night he was a terrorist in a shadowy world where people speak in code ... where terrorist conspiracies are hatched.'' Stewart and Yousry are charged with providing material support to terrorists by letting Abdel-Rahman, 65, communicate with followers despite rules forbidding contact with those outside a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colo., where he is housed. If convicted of all charges, Stewart and Yousry could face about 20 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
The jury of eight women and four men will remain anonymous, a decision made by Judge John Koeltl for security reasons. A string of anonymous juries in terrorism trials over the last decade has delivered a procession of guilty verdicts. Those juries convicted six men in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; three men in a plot to blow up 12 U.S. airliners over the Far East; Abdel-Rahman and nine others in a plot to blow up New York landmarks; and four men in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
Stewart's case, the first major terrorism trial in Manhattan since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks demolished the World Trade Center, is poised to test the boundaries for attorneys in cases involving national security. Stewart, who represented the sheik when he was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995, maintains that her ethical obligations as a lawyer conflicted with strict rules the government put in place to prevent Abdel-Rahman from speaking to followers. Prosecutors say lawyers are not entitled to break the law and enjoy no exemption from punishment.
On Monday, Stewart filed papers asking the court to toss out the charges on the grounds that prosecutors violated her First Amendment rights and charged her because of her political views. Koeltl directed the government to provide a brief written response to the allegations next week.
AP-ES-06-22-04 1238EDT
This Sheik is almost as attractive as his lawyer. :-) What lovely people these terrorists be.
Hang 'em all. Especially the lawyer. Typical 60's leftist who has made a career out of supporting mass murderer thugs.
What a pair. They deserve each other.
Nothing like hearing WABC radio's Ron Kuby defending her and calling her a dear friend.
I would not be a bit surprised if he too carried terror messages to his fellow travellers.
What a traitorous b!tch. She should be fed to the hogs.
Put them in a cell together and throw away the key!
Between the two of them, I don't think the Ugly Tree has any branches left unbroken.
Haven't heard much about this case in the last few years. It will be interesting to see exactly what Stewart passed on and to whom.
The very definition of "shifty-eyed."
I thought all the charges against her were dropped long ago?
What do you have against hogs?
We have as many enemies within and without.
We have as many enemies within as without.
LOL. I guess that would be Cruel and Unusual Punishment... for them.
Geez, what an ugly and and unwholesome pair.
It would be twice as bad for her. She has two eyes.
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