Sponsor |  Dustwitch | Feb 10, 2005 10:12pm | by Patricia Herado
STAFF WRITER
February 10, 2005
Activist lawyer Lynne Stewart was convicted on all counts Thursday and faces up to 30 years in prison for using prison visits to help her client, radical Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, pass messages to and from his terrorist followers in the Islamic Group.
The case, which was closely watched by lawyers and civil rights groups concerned that Stewart was being persecuted for defending terrorists, was praised Thursday by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as a clear message that terrorism will not be tolerated.
A gasp went up in the federal courtroom in Manhattan as the jury convicted Stewart and her co-defendants, Ahmed Sattar, who served as the sheik's paralegal, and Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic translator for the sheik, on all counts stemming from what prosecutors charged was a global terrorist conspiracy.
Stewart, 65, appeared stunned and began to cry. Yousry's daughter, Leslie, 22, who took the stand as a character witness for her father, wept uncontrollably, as did her mother seated next to her. Sattar's wife, Lisa, hugged her teenage son.
The feisty lawyer, who is a fixture in the courthouse where she was convicted, emerged from the building and adamantly declared she had committed no crime and said she was "shook up and surprised and disappointed."
"When you put Osama bin Laden in a courtroom and ask the jury to ignore it, that's asking a lot," said Stewart, noting that prosecutors played an al-Jazeera videotape of bin Laden and his aides vowing to "spill blood in the fields of jihad" unless Abdel-Rahman was released. "We are not giving up. Obviously, we are going to fight," said Stewart, who remains free on bail.
She and lawyers for her co-defendants vowed they would appeal, charging the video should have never been permitted. Stewart also accused the Bush administration of targeting activist lawyers for defending unpopular clients, calling herself a "poster girl for John Ashcroft and his Patriot Act."
Her voice broke with emotion as she continued, saying, "You can't tell the lawyers how to do their job. You've got to let them operate. And I will fight on. I'm not giving up. I know I committed no crime. I know what I did was right."
Gonzales, Ashcroft's successor, said the convictions "send a clear, unmistakable message that this department will pursue both those who carry out acts of terrorism and those who assist them with their murderous goals."
U.S. District Court Judge John Koeltl set sentencing for July 15. Sattar faces up to life in prison, while Yousry faces 20 years of imprisonment.
The panel of anonymous jurors struggled through their 13 days of deliberations over four weeks. Monday, two female jurors asked to speak to Koeltl. One juror cried as the verdict was read and could barely speak when the judge polled her.
Another juror held her hand to her face. Sources said the two had been holding out for acquittal and apparently changed their minds over the last two days.
more :newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-stew0211,0,423127.story [newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-stew0211,0,423127.story]-
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