[Ppnews] Lynne Stewart imprisoned - NY Demo at 4pm

[Political Prisoner News]

Join us in supporting Lynne Stewart while she 
faces this terrible outcome of her 
appeal.  Today, Tuesday, November 17th 4 p.m. 
Foley Square, NYC - in front of Court house where 
trial took place - 80 Centre Street (near Worth 
St.) take 4,5 or 6 to Brooklyn Bridge.  Spread the word.
November 17, 2009, 2:14 pm

Lynne Stewart Is Ordered to Begin Serving Sentence

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/conviction-of-lynne-stewart-is-upheld-and-bail-isrevoked/

By <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/benjamin-weiser/>BENJAMIN WEISER
Paul O. Boisvert
for The New York

A federal appeals court panel in Manhattan on 
Tuesday upheld the conviction of 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/s/lynne_f_stewart/index.html>Lynne 
F. Stewart, the outspoken defense lawyer who was 
found 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/nyregion/11stewart.html>guilty 
in 2005 of assisting terrorism by smuggling 
information from an imprisoned client to his violent followers in Egypt.

The three-judge panel of the United States Court 
of Appeals for the Second Circuit also revoked 
Ms. Stewart’s bond, and said that she must begin 
serving her 28-month sentence.

But the panel also sent the case back to the 
trial judge, 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/k/john_g_koeltl/index.html>John 
G. Koeltl of Federal District Court, to determine 
whether she deserved a longer sentence in light 
of the seriousness of her conduct and the 
possibility she had lied at trial. Prosecutors had sought a term of 30 years.

It was not immediately clear when Ms. Stewart, 
who is 70 and who was being treated for breast 
cancer at the time of her sentencing in 2006, 
would surrender. She could not be reached for 
comment by phone; her lawyer, 
<http://www.nycriminallawfirm.com/who_jld.htm>Joshua 
L. Dratel, declined to comment, as did a 
spokeswoman for the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Judge 
<http://www.pli.edu/product/faculty_profile.asp?fid=6265>Robert 
D. Sack, who wrote the appellate ruling, said the 
panel had rejected Ms. Stewart’s claim that she 
was acting only as a “zealous advocate” for her 
imprisoned client, Sheik 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/a/omar_abdel_rahman/index.html>Omar 
Abdel Rahman, when he passed messages for him, 
and was not seeking to incite violence among his 
militant followers. Mr. Abdel Rahman was serving 
a life sentence for his conviction in a plot to blow up New York landmarks.

“A genuinely held intent to represent a client 
‘zealously’ is not necessarily inconsistent with 
criminal intent,” Judge Sack wrote. The ruling 
upholding the conviction of Ms. Stewart and two 
co-defendants was joined by Judges 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/w/john_m_jr_walker/index.html>John 
M. Walker Jr. and Guido Calabresi.

Judge Sack also noted that when Judge Koeltl 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/nyregion/17stewart.html>imposed 
the 28-month sentence, he cited what he called 
her extraordinary personal characteristics in 
supporting leniency. Judge Koeltl had described 
Ms. Stewart as “a dedicated public servant who 
had, throughout her career, ‘represented the 
poor, the disadvantaged and the unpopular,’ ” Judge Sack wrote.

But Judge Koeltl had declined to decide, as 
prosecutors had argued, whether Ms. Stewart had 
lied at trial, a factor he should have considered 
in weighing her sentence, Judge Sack wrote.

“We think that whether Stewart lied under oath at 
her trial is directly relevant to whether her 
sentence was appropriate,” Judge Sack wrote. He 
said that the case should be sent back to Judge 
Koeltl for a determination as to whether she 
lied, and if so, the judge should “resentence 
Stewart so as to reflect that finding.”

Judge Walker dissented on the sentence, which he 
called “breathtakingly low.” He said that he 
would go further than the majority in finding 
additional errors by Judge Koeltl. The majority, 
he wrote, “trivializes Stewart’s extremely 
serious conduct with a ‘slap on the wrist.’ ”

**************************
U.S. lawyer convicted in terrorism case imprisoned

Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:52pm EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5AG4CE20091117

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A disbarred New York lawyer 
convicted in 2005 on charges of supporting 
terrorism by helping an imprisoned blind Egyptian 
cleric smuggle messages to militant followers was 
ordered to prison by a U.S. federal appeals court 
that upheld her conviction on Tuesday.

The appeals court also ordered the trial judge to 
consider lengthening the 28-month prison sentence 
given to civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart, 70, 
saying the judge had declined to consider whether Stewart committed perjury.

Stewart was sentenced in October 2006 to 28 
months in prison for helping her client, Sheikh 
Omar Abdel-Rahman, contact the Islamic Group, 
which the U.S. government lists as a terrorist organization.

Abdel-Rahman was convicted in 1995 of conspiring 
to attack U.S. targets in a plot that U.S. 
prosecutors said included the 1993 World Trade 
Center bombing. The twin towers of the World 
Trade Center were later toppled in the 2001 
attacks on the United States carried out by the group al Qaeda.

Prosecutors said messages Stewart passed on for 
Abdel-Rahman could have incited violence in Egypt.

Evidence in the case against Stewart included a 
call the lawyer made to a Reuters correspondent 
in Egypt in which she read a statement issued by 
the cleric saying he had withdrawn his support 
for the Islamic Group's ceasefire in Egypt.

In its nearly 200-page ruling, the U.S. second 
circuit appeals court ordered Stewart to begin serving her sentence.

Stewart had been released on bail pending the 
appeal. She could have been sentenced to more 
than 15 years in prison after being convicted on 
charges of supporting terrorism. Prosecutors had sought up to 30 years.

Stewart was tried along with Mohamed Yousry, an 
Arabic language translator working for her, and 
New York postal worker Ahmed Sattar.

Sattar was sentenced to 24 years in prison and 
Yousry to 20 months. The appeals court also said 
the trial judge could reconsider the sentences of those two men as well.

(Reporting by 
<http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=christine.kearney&>Christine 
Kearney, editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and 
<http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=will.dunham&>Will 
Dunham)

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