Lynne Stewart, lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, and Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic translator, along with Ahmed Abdel Sattar and Yassir Al-Sirri, faced charges that Attorney General John Ashcroft personally announced in April 2002. Ashcroft claimed the two had violated the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, passed during the Clinton administration.

The two charges against Stewart and Yousry the court dismissed—“conspiracy to provide material support” and “providing material support” to Abdel-Rahman’s organization, the Islamic Group—carried a possible 15-year sentence. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl said the charges were unconstitutionally vague.

The indictment indicated that Stewart’s communications with Abdel-Rahman had been the subject of government wiretaps for more than two years. Since October 2001, the Justice Department has been allowed to conduct surveillance of people in federal custody with their attorneys without judicial oversight, after an amendment in federal prison regulations that Ashcroft pushed through. The eavesdropping on Stewart and her client, however, started 18 months prior to this new regulation.

Stewart and her supporters had organized a public defense campaign, including speaking across the country and packing courtroom hearings.

Abdel-Rahman was convicted of frame-up charges of conspiracy to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 and attack other city landmarks. In January 1996 he was sentenced to life in prison plus 65 years.

In a further attempt to dehumanize and break the blind cleric, the Bureau of Prisons imposed what they call Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) on him—including restrictions on his access to mail, telephone and visitors—and prohibited him from speaking with the media. He is now being held at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota.

To back up the charges against his lawyer, federal prosecutors claimed that Stewart provided the Islamic Group with communications equipment. According to Koeltl, “The Government subsequently changed course and stated that the mere use of one’s telephone constitutes criminal behavior.”  
 
Two charges remain
The judge let stand two charges against Stewart: conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and making false statements. Prosecutors claim she broke an agreement she signed with prison officials by allegedly distracting prison guards so that Abdel-Rahman could dictate to Yousry instructions to communicate to the Islamic Group, including breaking a cease-fire agreement with the Egyptian government.

Ahmed Abdel Sattar and Yassir Al-Sirri still face an additional charge of “soliciting” persons to engage in violence as part of the original indictment.

Koeltl agreed to an evidentiary hearing August 26 to determine if—as Stewart affirms—an oral agreement between Stewart’s former counsel and the government to forgo any SAM-related prosecution of her in exchange for some restrictions on her visits with Abdel-Rahman had been violated.

“It’s so broad you can sweep anybody under its rug,” Stewart told the New York Times, referring to the “antiterrorism” statute under which she’s being hounded. “A conduit of communication. How could you not be if you’re taking phone calls from your client?”

Pat Leuvasseur, a spokesperson for Stewart, said in a July 23 phone interview with the Militant that “Lynne wants to make sure that people are aware of the importance of the support that they gave her in this fight. This is not an isolated case and it’s important to keep fighting and exposing the injustices that are occurring. The support we got from the National Lawyers Guild, people in the legal community, and others means a lot. And the fight is not over.”

Stewart set up a website about the case: www.lynnestewart.com. She spoke around the country, filled the courtroom with supporters, and lent her name to other fighters for justice, including Perspectiva Mundial editor Róger Calero and Palestinian rights activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti.  
 
 
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