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17th October 2006, 08:25
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/new...egion-apnewyork (http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--terrortrial1017oct16,0,7077043.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork)
AP New York
NYC civil rights lawyer Stewart gets just over 2 years in prison
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer
October 17, 2006, 1:12 AM EDT
NEW YORK -- Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart arrived at her sentencing packed for prison _ carrying medication, books and a pair of sweatpants to begin a stay that could have stretched for 30 years.
Instead, Stewart walked out of the courtroom unshackled, free pending appeal of a 28-month sentence after a judge took into account her career of standing up for the most unpopular clients.
Click here to find out more!
The 67-year-old, convicted of helping a jailed terrorist sheik communicate with his disciples, smiled through tears as the judge announced the sentence Monday. Later, she hugged family and supporters and was handed two bouquets of red roses as she walked out of the courthouse.
"This is a great victory against an overreaching government," she told dozens of supporters outside the lower Manhattan courthouse after winning extraordinary leniency from U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl.
The judge rejected demands by the government that Stewart be sentenced to 30 years in prison for convictions of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist organizations, making false statements and defrauding the government.
The sentence came after a year in which Stewart was treated for breast cancer and diabetes, conditions the judge said would make it difficult for Stewart in prison.
The judge permitted her to remain free pending appeal, though he said there was ample evidence she had smuggled messages between her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization _ messages he said could have had "potentially lethal consequences." But the judge noted no one was harmed as a result.
The federal government once hailed the case as a major win against terrorism, and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said he was disappointed by Stewart's sentence, along with a one-year, eight-month prison term given to Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter, and a 24-year sentence imposed on Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker. He said prosecutors would consider an appeal.
Prosecutors argued Sattar should be imprisoned for life and Yousry for 20 years in prison for their roles in helping Abdel-Rahman communicate, despite special measures imposed to cut him off from the world as he served his life sentence for terrorism.
Abdel-Rahman was convicted in plots to assassinate Egypt's president and blow up five New York landmarks, including the U.N. building and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. Prosecutors have said Stewart and the co-defendants helped spread Abdel-Rahman's call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.
Stewart left court vowing to continue her fight to win an appeal, regain her attorney's license and "make me back into the lawyer I was."
Although the judge called the crimes "extraordinarily severe criminal conduct," he cited more than three decades of dedication by Stewart to poor, disadvantaged and unpopular clients that had left her destitute even though she once worked on more than 70 cases at a time.
Stewart became a civil rights lawyer and a champion of the downtrodden in the 1960s after becoming upset at racism and other societal ills of the era.
"Ms. Stewart performed a public service, not only to her clients but to the nation," Koeltl said.
Stewart also represented many controversial clients, including 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.
Outside court, Stewart acknowledged her good fortune, saying 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."
About 150 Stewart supporters who could not get inside the capacity-filled courtroom stood outside the courthouse, chanting "Free Lynne, Free Lynne." Another 200 supporters jammed the hallways outside the courtroom.
Joshua Dratel, a Stewart lawyer, called the case "a tragedy of epic proportions" caused by Stewart's habit of caring for clients after they have been sentenced.
He said a harsh sentence would have resulted in lawyers "giving up zealous advocacy."
In a letter to the sentencing judge, Stewart proclaimed: "I am not a traitor."
"The end of my career truly is like a sword in my side," Stewart said before her sentence was announced. "Permit me to live out the rest of my life productively, lovingly, righteously."
In a pre-sentence document, prosecutors told Koeltl that Stewart's "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group, deserves to be severely punished."
Stewart said she did not intentionally enter into any plot or conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization. She believes the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks made her behavior intolerable in the eyes of the government.
Stewart was arrested six months after those attacks. The indictment was brought by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002.
___
Associated Press Writer Pat Milton and AP Radio correspondent Warren Levinson contributed to this report.
So Lynne Stewart the famous civil rights attorney who defended radicals in the 60s managed to get off with 28 months in prison instead of 2 years, nice.
AP New York
NYC civil rights lawyer Stewart gets just over 2 years in prison
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer
October 17, 2006, 1:12 AM EDT
NEW YORK -- Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart arrived at her sentencing packed for prison _ carrying medication, books and a pair of sweatpants to begin a stay that could have stretched for 30 years.
Instead, Stewart walked out of the courtroom unshackled, free pending appeal of a 28-month sentence after a judge took into account her career of standing up for the most unpopular clients.
Click here to find out more!
The 67-year-old, convicted of helping a jailed terrorist sheik communicate with his disciples, smiled through tears as the judge announced the sentence Monday. Later, she hugged family and supporters and was handed two bouquets of red roses as she walked out of the courthouse.
"This is a great victory against an overreaching government," she told dozens of supporters outside the lower Manhattan courthouse after winning extraordinary leniency from U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl.
The judge rejected demands by the government that Stewart be sentenced to 30 years in prison for convictions of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist organizations, making false statements and defrauding the government.
The sentence came after a year in which Stewart was treated for breast cancer and diabetes, conditions the judge said would make it difficult for Stewart in prison.
The judge permitted her to remain free pending appeal, though he said there was ample evidence she had smuggled messages between her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization _ messages he said could have had "potentially lethal consequences." But the judge noted no one was harmed as a result.
The federal government once hailed the case as a major win against terrorism, and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said he was disappointed by Stewart's sentence, along with a one-year, eight-month prison term given to Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter, and a 24-year sentence imposed on Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker. He said prosecutors would consider an appeal.
Prosecutors argued Sattar should be imprisoned for life and Yousry for 20 years in prison for their roles in helping Abdel-Rahman communicate, despite special measures imposed to cut him off from the world as he served his life sentence for terrorism.
Abdel-Rahman was convicted in plots to assassinate Egypt's president and blow up five New York landmarks, including the U.N. building and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. Prosecutors have said Stewart and the co-defendants helped spread Abdel-Rahman's call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.
Stewart left court vowing to continue her fight to win an appeal, regain her attorney's license and "make me back into the lawyer I was."
Although the judge called the crimes "extraordinarily severe criminal conduct," he cited more than three decades of dedication by Stewart to poor, disadvantaged and unpopular clients that had left her destitute even though she once worked on more than 70 cases at a time.
Stewart became a civil rights lawyer and a champion of the downtrodden in the 1960s after becoming upset at racism and other societal ills of the era.
"Ms. Stewart performed a public service, not only to her clients but to the nation," Koeltl said.
Stewart also represented many controversial clients, including 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.
Outside court, Stewart acknowledged her good fortune, saying 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."
About 150 Stewart supporters who could not get inside the capacity-filled courtroom stood outside the courthouse, chanting "Free Lynne, Free Lynne." Another 200 supporters jammed the hallways outside the courtroom.
Joshua Dratel, a Stewart lawyer, called the case "a tragedy of epic proportions" caused by Stewart's habit of caring for clients after they have been sentenced.
He said a harsh sentence would have resulted in lawyers "giving up zealous advocacy."
In a letter to the sentencing judge, Stewart proclaimed: "I am not a traitor."
"The end of my career truly is like a sword in my side," Stewart said before her sentence was announced. "Permit me to live out the rest of my life productively, lovingly, righteously."
In a pre-sentence document, prosecutors told Koeltl that Stewart's "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group, deserves to be severely punished."
Stewart said she did not intentionally enter into any plot or conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization. She believes the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks made her behavior intolerable in the eyes of the government.
Stewart was arrested six months after those attacks. The indictment was brought by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002.
___
Associated Press Writer Pat Milton and AP Radio correspondent Warren Levinson contributed to this report.
So Lynne Stewart the famous civil rights attorney who defended radicals in the 60s managed to get off with 28 months in prison instead of 2 years, nice.