Posted on 10/16/2006 4:35:58 PM PDT by bd476
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York attorney convicted of aiding terrorism by helping an imprisoned Egyptian client smuggle messages to militant followers was sentenced on Monday to 28 months in prison.
Lynne Stewart, 67, was convicted in February 2005 of helping her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, to contact the Islamic Group, which the U.S. government lists as a terrorist organization.
Prosecutors said messages Stewart passed on for Abdel-Rahman could have incited violence in Egypt. The sheikh was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack U.S. targets in a plot prosecutors said included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Stewart, long a defender of the poor and unpopular, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan federal court. She could have been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison on charges of supporting terrorism and prosecutors had sought up to 30 years.
Koeltl, who cited Stewart's long service as a defense attorney as grounds for the relatively short prison sentence, allowed her to remain free pending appeal of her conviction.
"We will claim victory here. We are happy and humbled to be going home today," Stewart told a crowd of 150 supporters and media outside the courthouse.
The civil rights lawyer has defended her actions, saying she was only zealously representing her client.
"I hope the government realizes their error ... I hope the appeal will vindicate me and make me back into the lawyer I was."
Tagged as both heroine and radical leftist, Stewart is the only U.S. lawyer to be indicted on terrorism charges. Civil rights groups say the case stemmed from Bush administration efforts to discourage the defense of accused terrorists.
U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said in a statement that the government was disappointed with Stewart's sentence and would consider an appeal.
OTHER CONVICTIONS
Stewart was arrested six months after the September 11 attacks and was prosecuted along with Arabic translator Mohamed Yousry and New York postal worker Ahmed Sattar.
Sattar, 47, who faced a life sentence for being convicted of conspiring to kill people outside the United States, was sentenced on Monday to 24 years in prison.
Yousry, convicted of aiding in the smuggling of Abdel-Rahman's messages from prison, was sentenced to 20 months.
Evidence in the case against Stewart included a call the lawyer made to a Reuters correspondent in Egypt in which she read a statement issue by the cleric saying he had withdrawn his support for the Islamic Group's cease-fire in Egypt. That correspondent was subpoenaed in the case.
Since her 2002 indictment, Stewart has spoken at rallies, undergone treatment for breast cancer and become the subject of a documentary called "Who's Afraid of Lynne Stewart?"
Outside the court Stewart joked to reporters that she had prepared for "the worst," meaning incarceration, and had brought two mystery novels, cancer medication and a pair of sweatpants for "going inside."
Smug, contemptuous traitor-attorney should have received 24 years.
She was allowed to go home pending her appeal.
Drop her off on the coast of Somalia.
http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=1305
THE "HON." JOHN GEORGE KOELTL:
Nominated by William J. Clinton on April 26, 1994, to a seat vacated by Shirley Wohl Kram; Confirmed by the Senate on August 9, 1994, and received commission on August 10, 1994.
This is not the same article.
I am only sorry she didn't get death. She is a despicable lib with no conscience and hates the country that gave her so many gifts. Her voice is the most caustic sound on the planet and we won't even discuss her appearance, as I have just eaten and don't want to tempt fate.
Somebody want to explain to me why she wasn't charged with TREASON??????????
Judge Koeltl is a scholarly and contemplative judge who is among the fairest of the virtually hundreds of U.S. district judges before whom I have appeared for hearings and the many dozens in whose court I've been part of a trial. He know the law and applies it scrupulously and without fear or favor. He is the type of judge every American should be pleased to have serving their courts.
ABC News
Sheik's Lawyer Gets Nearly 2 1/2 Years
NYC Civil Rights Lawyer Sentenced to Nearly 2 1/2 Years in Prison for Helping Terrorists
October 16, 2006
NEW YORK - A firebrand civil rights lawyer who has defended Black Panthers and anti-war radicals was sentenced Monday to nearly 2 1/2 years in prison far less than the 30 years prosecutors wanted for helping an imprisoned terrorist sheik communicate with his followers on the outside.
Lynne Stewart, 67, smiled, cried and hugged supporters after U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl pronounced the sentence of 28 months.
The judge said Stewart was guilty of smuggling messages between her client and his followers that could have "potentially lethal consequences." He called the crimes "extraordinarily severe criminal conduct."
But in departing from federal guidelines that called for 30 years behind bars, he cited Stewart's more than three decades of dedication to poor, disadvantaged and unpopular clients.
"Ms. Stewart performed a public service, not only to her clients, but to the nation," Koeltl said.
The judge said Stewart could remain free while she appeals, a process that could take more than a year.
Stewart was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, and her lawyer Elizabeth Fink had warned in a plea to the judge: "If you send her to prison, she's going to die. It's as simple as that."
Outside court, Stewart said she thought the sentence was "a victory for doing good work all one's life." She added: "You get time off for good behavior usually at the end of your prison term. I got it at the beginning."
U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia had no immediate comment.
Stewart has represented Black Panthers, leaders of the 1960s student activist group Weather Underground, a former mob hit man and a man accused of trying to kill nine police officers.
Stewart was convicted in 2005 of providing material support to terrorists. She had released a statement issused by one of her clients, Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind sheik sentenced to life in prison for plotting to blow up five New York landmarks and assassinate Egypt's president.
Prosecutors have called the case a major victory in the war on terrorism. They said Stewart and other defendants carried messages between the sheik and top members of an Egypt-based terrorist organization, helping spread Abdel-Rahman's call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.
Stewart was arrested six months after the Sept. 11 attacks, along with Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter, and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker.
Yousry was sentenced to one year and eight months behind bars, while Sattar received 24 years in prison Monday.
Convicted of conspiracy to kill and kidnap people in a foreign country, Sattar could have gotten a life sentence. But the judge said no one was killed or injured, and he cited Sattar's lack of previous crimes and his restrictive prison conditions.
In a letter to the judge, Stewart proclaimed: "I am not a traitor." She said she did not intentionally enter into any conspiracy to help a terrorist organization.
"The end of my career truly is like a sword in my side," Stewart said at her sentencing. "Permit me to live out the rest of my life productively, lovingly, righteously."
In court papers, prosecutors said Stewart's "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group, deserves to be severely punished."
Earlier, about 150 Stewart supporters who could not get inside the filled-to-capacity courtroom stood outside the courthouse, chanting "Free Lynne, Free Lynne."
"It's not just Lynne Stewart who is a victim; it's the Bill of Rights that's the victim," said Al Dorfman, 72, a retired lawyer.
About 200 more supporters jammed the halls outside the courtroom.
Associated Press writer Pat Milton and AP Radio correspondent Warren Levinson contributed to this report.
Sheik's Lawyer Gets Nearly 2 1/2 Years
It's incredible that a traitor would receive such a light sentence.
Thanks, Libertarian444. I was wondering who supported the Judge.
It's not very surprising to learn that Clinton appointed him.
Biography of Omar Jadwat (11/10/2004)
Omar C. Jadwat is Staff Counsel with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. He joined IRP as a Skadden Fellow in 2002 after graduating magna cum laude from New York University Law School and serving as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl. His practice includes litigation relating to immigration enforcement by state and local police. In a previous career, he worked as a development researcher in South Africa.
Not enough for a traitor.
She should have been hung by the neck. I personally do not care if she was a granny and a cancer survivor.
She was passing information from someone who wants to kill Americans to people who want to kill Americans.
She knew DAMN well what she was doing. That POS.
I think she oughta be shot, but that's just me.
When Jane Fonda visted Vietnam, and was never charged, there is nearly no way anyone can be charged with treason now.
Does this mean she is disbarred immediately?
The Judge may know the law, Middie, but he did not scrupulously apply anything except a huge incentive to any future traitors and terrorists.
From the article: "...But in departing from federal guidelines that called for 30 years behind bars, he cited Stewart's more than three decades of dedication to poor, disadvantaged and unpopular clients."Bleeding heart Judge.
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