Lynne Stewart Sentenced to 28 Months

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Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced Monday to 28 months in prison on a terrorism charge for helping a client who plotted to blow up New York City landmarks communicate with his followers.

Stewart, 67, could have faced up to 30 years in prison. She smiled as the judge announced his decision to send her to prison for less than 2 1/2 years.

"If you send her to prison, she's going to die. It's as simple as that," defense lawyer Elizabeth Fink had told the judge before the sentence was pronounced.

Stewart, who was treated last year for breast cancer, was convicted in 2005 of providing material support to terrorists. She had released a statement by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Egyptian sheik sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in plots 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 senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization, helping spread Abdel-Rahman's call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.

In a letter to the judge before her hearing, Stewart proclaimed: "I am not a traitor."

"The end of my career truly is like a sword in my side," She said in court Monday. "Permit me to live out the rest of my life productively, lovingly, righteously."

EARLIER:

In a letter to the judge scheduled to sentence her Monday, civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart proclaimed, "I am not a traitor." Prosecutors have painted a different picture of the 67-year-old lawyer, asking that she be given the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison following her conviction on terrorism charges for enabling a jailed Egyptian sheik to communicate with followers despite demands that he be isolated from the world.

In a pre-sentence document, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge John G. 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." About 150 Stewart supporters who could not get inside the capacity-filled courtroom for her sentencing Monday morning stood outside the courthouse, chanting "Free Lynne, Free Lynne." As she entered the federal courthouse, Stewart shouted to them "I love you" and "I'm hanging in there." "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 who was among the Stewart supporters standing outside.

Stewart was convicted in February 2005 of providing material support to terrorists. She had released a statement by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind sheik sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in plots to blow up five New York landmarks and assassinate Egypt's president. Stewart, who represented the sheik at his 1995 trial, was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, and her sentencing has been delayed while she underwent treatment. In a letter to the judge, she asked for mercy. "The government's characterization of me and what occurred is inaccurate and untrue," she wrote. "It takes unfair advantage of the climate of urgency and hysteria that followed 9/11 and that was re-lived during the trial. I did not intentionally enter into any plot or conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization."

Koeltl already has upheld the jury verdict, rejecting Stewart's claim that Abdel-Rahman was engaging in protected speech when he expressed his opinion about a cease fire by Islamic militants in Egypt that Stewart passed along in a 2000 press release.

Prosecutors see the case in stark terms. They agreed with a U.S. Probation Department pre-sentencing report that recommended Stewart serve the maximum possible sentence of 30 years. Lawyer Elizabeth Fink wrote to the judge on Stewart's behalf, calling the government's position "draconian, inhumane and ludicrous." Stewart was arrested six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, along with Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter, and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker.

Koeltl sentenced Sattar to 24 years in prison on Monday. Convicted of conspiracy to kill and kidnap people in a foreign country, he could have been sentenced to a life term. Koeltl said he departed from the federal sentencing guidelines because no one was killed or injured as a result of the crimes and because of Sattar's lack of previous crimes and restrictive prison conditions.

Yousry and Stewart, both convicted of providing material support to terrorists, face up to 30 years in prison. Besides the material support conviction, Stewart also was convicted of defrauding the government and making false statements for breaking her promise to abide by special rules the government imposed on the sheik to prevent him from communicating with his followers.