A Rally for Lynne Stewart Draws About 50 to a Brooklyn Bar

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The New York Sun

The rally sponsored by the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee began quietly last evening. At the hour it was scheduled to begin at a bar in Brooklyn, only one man was present, and he was quietly sipping a margarita.

The man, Ralph Poynter, is Stewart’s husband, and with three months to go until she is sentenced, his thoughts about her case have not wavered. He believes, like the few dozen others who joined him last night, that his wife is innocent of the charge she was convicted of in February 2005: supporting terrorism.

Despite a bout with breast cancer, Stewart has not spent the time since her conviction shut away from public. She has traveled the country speaking of her case. Last night’s event capped a weekend of public appearances that ranged from a rally in Harlem to a conference on socialism at Columbia.

At the Brooklyn Southpaw last night, the program promised folk music and a spoken word performance. Donations of $15 were requested to help print posters and fund other events, Mr. Poynter said.

Long before the music began, Stewart seemed in high spirits, speaking with former clients, a grandchild, and friends who had traveled from as far as Boston.

A jury convicted Stewart of supporting terrorism by smuggling out messages from the imprisoned terrorist-sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Stewart, an attorney, represented Abdel-Rahman, who headed a terrorist group in Egypt and was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up landmarks in New York.

In violation of a gag order, Stewart said she passed on the messages to a reporter in Cairo in order to lift Abdel-Rahman’s spirits.

“My obligation as a lawyer was that I save him,” she said of Abdel Rahman. “He was suffering terribly. The isolation was killing him. The best way to save him in my eyes was to make a press release and put him back on the world stage.”

The crowd around Stewart grew to about 50 by 8:30 p.m.

Speaking of her sentencing, scheduled for September, Stewart said she hoped to avoid jail time, although she expects the government to seek to put her away for 30 years. The maximum time she faces is 45 years, the Associated Press reported.

She said her age, her recent bout with breast cancer, and her work as a defense attorney were among the factors that ought to keep her from prison.

“We believe it’s an eminently reasonable request,” she said.


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