By LARRY NEUMEISTER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; 5:36 AM
NEW YORK -- Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart arrived at her sentencing packed for prison. With medication, books and a pair of sweat pants, she was prepared to begin a stay that could have stretched for 30 years.
Instead, Stewart walked out of the courtroom unshackled, free pending appeal of a 28-month sentence after a judge took into account her career of standing up for the most unpopular clients.
The 67-year-old, convicted of helping a jailed terrorist sheik communicate with his disciples, smiled through tears as the judge announced the sentence Monday. Later, she hugged family and supporters and was handed two bouquets of red roses as she walked out of the courthouse.
"This is a great victory against an overreaching government," she told dozens of supporters outside the lower Manhattan courthouse after winning extraordinary leniency from U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl.
The judge rejected demands by the government that Stewart be sentenced to 30 years in prison for convictions of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist organizations, making false statements and defrauding the government.
Prosecutors had blistered Stewart's acts as "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group."
The sentence came after a year in which Stewart was treated for breast cancer and diabetes, conditions the judge said would make it difficult for Stewart in prison.
The judge said there was ample evidence she had smuggled messages between her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization _ messages he said could have had "potentially lethal consequences." But the judge noted no one was harmed as a result.
The federal government once hailed the case as a major win against terrorism, and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said he was disappointed by Stewart's sentence, as well as the 20-month prison term given to Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter, and the 24-year sentence imposed on Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker. He said his office will consider an appeal.
Prosecutors argued Sattar should be imprisoned for life and Yousry for 20 years for their roles in helping Abdel-Rahman convey his message, despite special measures imposed to cut him off from the world as he served his life sentence for terrorism.
Abdel-Rahman was convicted in plots to assassinate Egypt's president and blow up five New York landmarks, including the U.N. building and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. Prosecutors have said Stewart and the co-defendants helped spread Abdel-Rahman's call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.
Although the judge called Stewart's crimes "extraordinarily severe criminal conduct," he cited more than three decades of dedication by Stewart to poor, disadvantaged and unpopular clients that had left her destitute even though she once worked on more than 70 cases at a time.
"Ms. Stewart performed a public service, not only to her clients but to the nation," Koeltl said.
Her clients included Black Panthers, leaders of the 1960s student activist group Weather Underground, a former mob hit man and a man accused of trying to kill nine police officers.
Outside the courtroom, Stewart acknowledged her good fortune, saying 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."
About 150 Stewart supporters who could not get inside the crowded courtroom stood outside the courthouse, chanting "Free Lynne, Free Lynne." Another 200 supporters jammed the hallways outside the courtroom.
Stewart said she did not intentionally enter into any plot or conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization.
"I am not a traitor," she proclaimed in a letter to the sentencing judge.
Stewart was arrested six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The indictment was brought by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002.
"The end of my career truly is like a sword in my side," Stewart said before her sentence was announced. "Permit me to live out the rest of my life productively, lovingly, righteously."
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Associated Press Writer Pat Milton and AP Radio correspondent Warren Levinson contributed to this report.