Convicted civil rights lawyer Stewart faces New York sentencing

NEW YORK -- The government seeks to have civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart sent to prison for what amounts to the rest of her life for a terrorism conviction. Stewart wants a judge to be lenient and see her as a well-intentioned lawyer who made a serious mistake.

U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl is scheduled to decide Monday how to punish Stewart and two co-defendants for a scheme the government says enabled a jailed blind Egyptian sheik to communicate with followers despite demands that he be isolated from the world.

Stewart, 67, was convicted in February 2005 of providing material support to terrorists for releasing a statement by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a sheik sentenced to life 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.

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, telling the judge in a pre-sentence document that Stewart's "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group, deserves to be severely punished."

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."

In a letter to the judge, Stewart asked for mercy.

"I am not a traitor," she wrote. "The government's characterization of me and what occurred in inaccurate and untrue. 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."

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.

Yousry and Stewart, both convicted of providing material support to terrorists, face up to 30 years in prison. Sattar, convicted of conspiracy to kill and kidnap people in a foreign country, could face life 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.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)