Imprisoning a fighter for justice

CIVIL LIBERTIES champion Lynne Stewart has been ordered to prepare to report to prison by a federal appeals court that upheld her conviction on bogus charges that she "supported terrorism" while serving as a lawyer for an imprisoned Muslim cleric.

Stewart, who worked for decades as a defense attorney for clients targeted by aggressive prosecutors of the political establishment, was convicted in 2005 for allegedly helping her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, communicate with the Islamic Group at a time when he was barred from contact with anyone but his attorneys.

While Stewart's supposed crime predates September 11 and the draconian USA PATRIOT Act, the decision by federal prosecutors to pursue the case was intended to set a precedent for the use of authoritarian methods under that law.

The right wing was overjoyed at news of Stewart's imminent imprisonment. An editorial in the New York Daily News sadistically cheered the jailing of a 70-year-old woman with diabetes and hypertension who is a breast cancer survivor. Under the headline, "Terror moll gets hers," the editorial stated, "Stewart's long crusade to depict herself as victimized because of her anti-establishment political beliefs has been delusional or despicable--and, more likely, both."

The Daily News and the right wing were furious that Stewart, who was disbarred, was sentenced to only 28 months in prison by U.S. District Judge John Koeltl, who refused to go along with federal prosecutors' demand for a 30-year sentence on the grounds that her actions were a danger to national security.

As Stewart said on the Democracy Now! radio and TV program, her case raises "important constitutional issues--the right to speak to your lawyer privately without the government listening in, the right to be safe from having a search conducted of your lawyer's office. All these things are now swept under the rug and available to the government."

While prosecutors accused Stewart of perjury, she never denied what she had done: issue a press release in 2000 regarding an inactive group of Rahman's followers. This innocuous act, prosecutors claimed, violated strict limits placed on Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 for allegedly plotting to blow up New York City landmarks.

The Clinton administration Justice Department chose not to prosecute Stewart. But once the "war on terror" began under the Bush administration, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft saw the opportunity to make a political score at the expense of Stewart--and civil liberties. As Stewart told Democracy Now host Amy Goodman:

It was only after 9/11, in April of 2002, that John Ashcroft came to New York, announced the indictment of me, my paralegal and the interpreter for the case, on grounds of materially aiding a terrorist organization. One of the footnotes to the case, of course, is that Ashcroft also appeared on nationwide television with Letterman that night ballyhooing, the great work of Bush's Justice Department in indicting me and making the world safe from terrorism.

Now, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has not only ordered Stewart's bond revoked and remanded her to prison, but sent her case back to Judge Koeltl, with instructions that her sentencing be reconsidered--putting pressure on Koeltl to keep Stewart behind bars far longer than 28 months.

Stewart remains defiant. "I will go on fighting," she told reporters after learning of the appeals court's decision. "This is a case that is bigger than just me, personally. I am no criminal."

Everyone who supports civil rights and justice should give Stewart their support.