On June 14, 2000, radical attorney
Lynne Stewart broke a signed agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. She released a
press statement to the Reuters news service in Cairo on behalf of her imprisoned client,
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, convicted of instigating the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The statement said, in part, that the Sheikh, spiritual advisor to the fundamentalist Islamic Group [IG], wished to call off a cease-fire then observed in Egypt by the IG. Following this press release, the
Clinton Justice Department admonished Stewart for violating the Special Administrative Measures [SAMs], which prohibited the Sheikh from communicating in any way with the outside world. Stewart admitted she had erred and signed the SAMs agreement again, assuming her work would proceed as usual.
On April 9, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft, while on a visit to New York City’s Ground Zero, indicted Lynne Stewart for conspiracy and materially aiding a terrorist organization. Charged with her were her Arabic translator Mohammed Yousry and two supporters of the Sheikh, Ahmed Abdel Sattar (now held in the United States without bail), and Yassir Al-Sirri (currently free in England).