Vol. 77/No. 5      February 11, 2013

Before being convicted and sent to prison, she was a prominent defense attorney noted for taking on cases of people targeted by the government and others without financial means.

Stewart had been successfully treated for breast cancer earlier, but the disease has now returned and afflicted both her lungs and back.

Stewart’s condition is treatable, Ralph Poynter, Stewart’s husband and a leader in the effort to win her release from prison, told the Militant. But prison officials won’t transfer her from the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Ft. Worth, Texas, to New York, where she was treated before.

Stewart was framed up for her service as an attorney for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Muslim cleric found guilty in 1995 for allegedly plotting to blow up the United Nations headquarters and other buildings in New York.

After his conviction, Abdel-Rahman was placed under severe restrictions on his right to communicate with others.

The government’s main charge against Stewart was that she helped Abdel-Rahman get out a political message to his supporters in Egypt. She was originally sentenced to 28 months behind bars. But the government appealed the sentence on the basis of her apparent lack of remorse and it was increased to 10 years.

Stewart is collaborating with attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild on an appeal of her conviction and resentencing to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is due to be filed Feb. 21.

Poynter asked that supporters send letters to Stewart: Lynne Stewart 53504-054, Federal Medical Center Carswell, P.O. Box 27137, Ft. Worth, TX 76127.  
 
 
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