N.Y. Attorney Lynne Stewart Convicted of Aiding Terrorist Group

Terrorist supporter and abettor, Lynne Stewart is convicted of aiding Omar Abel Rahman. - Sailor

N.Y. Attorney Lynne Stewart Convicted of Aiding Terrorist Group


Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- New York lawyer Lynne Stewart was convicted of helping a radical Egyptian sheik pass secret messages to his followers urging violent terrorist attacks.

Stewart, 65, was charged with aiding a U.S.-designated terror organization, the Islamic Group, wage a broad murder and kidnapping conspiracy. Prosecutors say she and two co-defendants helped her former client, imprisoned blind cleric Omar Abdel Rahman, transmit messages to the group's leaders in defiance of prison restrictions.

Stewart, whose clients have included mobsters and political radicals, said she was being prosecuted for her role as an outspoken lawyer. She says she never intended to promote terrorism.

Stewart defended Rahman, the Islamic Group's spiritual leader, against 1993 charges that he plotted to blow up the United Nations, an FBI building, two tunnels, and a bridge in New York City. He was convicted and is serving a life sentence in a high security prison, where Stewart had numerous meetings with him.

From 1997 to 2002, Stewart and her co-defendants helped Rahman pass messages to followers in violation of government- imposed restrictions, prosecutors alleged. Rahman relied on the three to withdraw his support for the Islamic Group's cease-fire with the Egyptian government, which the organization adopted after its 1997 attack left 62 people dead in Luxor, Egypt, they say.

Stewart, along with Rahman aide Ahmed Abdel Sattar, 44, and interpreter Mohammed Yousry, 48, were accused of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government. Stewart and Yousry also faced charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

The case is U.S. v. Stewart, 02cr395, Southern District of New York.



To contact the reporter on this story:
David Glovin in New York at at dglovin@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Patrick Oster at poster@bloomberg.net.