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CNN Live At Daybreak

American Lawyer For Convicted Terrorist Has Been Indicted

Aired April 10, 2002 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The American lawyer for a convicted terrorist has now been indicted. Lynne Stewart is facing up to 40 years in jail, accused of supporting a terrorist group and lying to the government.

Details from Deborah Feyerick in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She defended a convicted terrorist. Now she's being accused of keeping his network going.

Lawyer Lynne Stewart, accused of passing messages from radical Muslim cleric Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman (ph) to his followers worldwide.

LYNNE STEWART, ATTORNEY: Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. I'm a lawyer. I fight for my clients. That's what my job is.

FEYERICK: Justice officials say Stewart tried covering up an unlawful prison conversation in which Sheikh Rahman gave his translator instructions to pass to members of the Islamic group, Gamant Islamia (ph). Prosecutors say that was a clear violation of prison rules, keeping the blind cleric from communicating with anyone else on the outside.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Stewart took affirmative steps to conceal the conversation from prison guards, making extraneous comments in English to mask the Arabic conversation between Rahman and Usri (ph).

FEYERICK: The translator, Mohammed Usri, was also charged. Prosecutors say Stewart publicly announced that Sheikh Rahman was withdrawing his support for a cease-fire among his followers. A cease-fire agreed to in 1997, after his terrorist organization claimed credit for attacking tourists in Luxor, Egypt, killing 58.

STEWART: And I think this will be a very good fight. I think we can make the government put up or shut up here, and I don't think they can put up.

FEYERICK: But the government says it has recorded conversations. Hundreds of them between Rahman, his lawyer, his translator and two other men, Ahmed Abdel Sater (ph) in New York, and Yasser Asilri (ph) in London. Both have been charged with spreading Rahman's message to followers.

ASHCROFT: We will not allow individuals to continue to perpetrate criminal acts or terrorist acts from their prison cells. And we will take whatever steps are necessary to...

FEYERICK: The attorney general says because of the alleged violations, the government is invoking the U.S. Patriot Act set up after September 11th. From now on, monitoring all communication between Rahman and his lawyers. Defense attorneys infuriated by the move.

SHELDON KRANTZ, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: If that is eroded and basically the Department of Justice and the FBI can decide whenever they want to monitor conversations or search lawyers' offices or in some other way intrude in the confidential relationship, then we are no different than a totalitarian country.

FEYERICK (on camera): Justice officials pointing out the indictment not related to the September 11th attacks, but still making several references to al Qaeda. Saying specifically, Sheikh Rahman took a page out of the al Qaeda manual by making sure that even though he was in prison, whoever he had contact with got his message out.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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