She is silenced !

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced to two years and four months months in prison on a terrorism charge Monday for helping an Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers on the outside.

 

Stewart, 67, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, smiled, cried and hugged supporters after U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl announced he was dramatically reducing the 30-year prison sentence called for by federal sentencing guidelines.

 

``If you send her to prison, she's going to die. It's as simple as that,'' defense lawyer Elizabeth Fink told the judge before the sentence was pronounced.

 

The judge said Stewart could remain free pending appeal, a process that could take more than a year.

 

Koeltl said she was guilty of smuggling messages between the sheik and his followers that could have ``potentially lethal consequences.'' He called the crimes ``extraordinarily severe criminal conduct.''

 

But he cited more than three decades of dedication to poor, disadvantaged and unpopular clients that had left her destitute even though she worked on more than 70 cases at once.

 

``Ms. Stewart performed a public service, not only to her clients but to the nation,'' Koeltl said.

 

Outside court, Stewart said she thought the sentence was ``a victory for doing good work all one's life.''

 

She added: ``You get time off for good behavior usually at the end of your prison term. I got it at the beginning.''

 

U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said he had no immediate comment.

 

Stewart was convicted in 2005 of providing material support to terrorists. She had released a statement by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind sheik sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in plots to blow up five New York landmarks and assassinate Egypt's president.

 

Prosecutors have called the case a major victory in the war on terrorism. They said Stewart and other defendants carried messages between the sheik and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization, helping spread Abdel-Rahman's call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.

 

In a letter to the sentencing judge, Stewart proclaimed: ``I am not a traitor.''

 

``The end of my career truly is like a sword in my side,'' Stewart said at her sentencing. ``Permit me to live out the rest of my life productively, lovingly, righteously.''

 

In a pre-sentence document, prosecutors told Koeltl that Stewart's ``egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group, deserves to be severely punished.''

 

In a letter to the judge, Stewart asked for mercy, saying she did not intentionally enter into any plot or conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization. She believes the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks made her behavior intolerable in the eyes of the government and gave it an excuse to make an example out of her.

 

``The government's characterization of me and what occurred is inaccurate and untrue,'' she wrote. ``It takes unfair advantage of the climate of urgency and hysteria that followed 9/11 and that was relived during the trial. I did not intentionally enter into any plot or conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization.''

 

``This case had nothing to do with September 11, your honor,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dember said at the sentencing. ``What she was doing was smuggling terrorism messages and smuggling out Abdel-Rahman's responses.''

 

Earlier, about 150 Stewart supporters who could not get inside the capacity-filled courtroom stood outside the courthouse, chanting ``Free Lynne, Free Lynne.''

 

As she entered the courthouse, Stewart shouted to them ``I love you'' and ``I'm hanging in there.''

 

``It's not just Lynn Stewart who is a victim, it's the Bill of Rights that's the victim,'' said Al Dorfman, 72, a retired lawyer who was among the Stewart supporters standing outside.

 

Another 200 supporters jammed the hallways outside the courtroom.

 

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.

 

The indictment against Stewart, Yousry and Sattar was brought by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002.

 

Koeltl sentenced Sattar to 24 years in prison on Monday. Convicted of conspiracy to kill and kidnap people in a foreign country, he could have been sentenced to a life term.

 

Koeltl said he departed from the federal sentencing guidelines for Sattar because no one was killed or injured as a result of the crimes and because of Sattar's lack of previous crimes and restrictive prison conditions.

 

``I am not a terrorist, your honor,'' Sattar told the judge before he was sentenced.

 

 

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