NEW YORK -- Lynne Stewart, an outspoken lawyer known for aggressively defending a long list of unpopular clients, was convicted Thursday by a federal jury in Manhattan of aiding Islamic terrorism by smuggling messages out of jail from a terrorist client.
In a startlingly sweeping verdict, Stewart was convicted on all five counts of providing material aid to terrorism and of lying to the government when she pledged to obey federal gag rules imposed on her client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind Islamic cleric. Her co-defendants, postal worker Ahmed Abdel Sattar and translator Mohammed Yousry, were also convicted.
The verdict was a major victory for Justice Department prosecutors in one of the country's most important terrorism cases since the Sept. 11 attacks. Stewart's April 2002 indictment was announced in Washington by John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, and the verdict was hailed Thursday by his successor, Alberto Gonzales.
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," Gonzales said.
The trial lasted more than seven months. Jurors announced their verdict after 12 days of deliberations that spanned four weeks. In recent days jurors asked for government exhibits that went to the question of whether Stewart intended to help the sheik's militant followers.
As the foreman announced the verdict Thursday, Stewart slumped slightly in her chair, as her chief lawyer, Michael Tigar, put his hand on her shoulder. She grew pale and rubbed her eyes to stop tears from coming down her face.
There were gasps and sounds of weeping from Stewart's followers who filled the benches in the wood-paneled courtroom.
In a case that was watched by lawyers nationwide, the jurors were persuaded that Stewart had crossed a professional line, from vigorously representing her client to conspiring in his plans to launch violence in Egypt.
Afterward, Stewart said she was stunned by the verdict and vowed to appeal.
"I see myself as being a symbol of what people rail against when they say our civil liberties are eroded," she said to a cluster of her supporters outside of the federal district courthouse. "I hope this will be a wake-up call to all the citizens of this country, that you can't lock up the lawyers, you can't tell the lawyers how to do their jobs."
"I will fight on, I'm not giving up," she promised defiantly. "I know I committed no crime. I know what I did was right."
But then her voice wavered and tears came to her eyes.
Stewart, who is 65 and in the closing years of a four-decade legal career, faces up to 35 years in jail. Judge John Koeltl set her sentencing for July 15. Because she was convicted of a felony, she will be immediately disbarred. She remains free on bail, but cannot travel outside of New York state.
Although Koeltl reminded jurors repeatedly that Osama bin Laden and the Sept. 11 attacks were not at issue, images of the Al Qaeda leader and remembrances of the destruction he wrought pervaded the trial, which took place blocks from the World Trade Center site.
Stewart was convicted on two counts of conspiring to provide material aid to terrorists. She was also convicted of three counts of perjury and defrauding the government for flouting prison rules that barred Abdel Rahman from communicating with anyone outside his federal prison in Minnesota except his lawyers and a wife.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0502110260feb11,1,2253435.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
http://www.lynnestewart.org/
is there some right to fair jury or somthing or what?