Friends and supporters as well as advocates of justice and Human Rights, will be glad to learn that Lynne Stewart, recently had her long awaited surgery, and as she said, “The great thing is that I am cured and functioning normally.”
To remind or inform everyone, Lynne Stewart is the 72 year old former NY attorney, mother, grandmother and life long social justice and peace advocate, who used her formidable legal skills to represent innumerable political activists, revolutionaries and other victims of government repression for decades, in many different state and federal courts.
In 2005, Lynne was convicted of lying to the government and aiding terrorism, in the course of her vigorous representation of a blind Egyptian Muslim cleric, Omar Abdel Rahman, who was ultimately convicted of seditious conspiracy. Lynne, then in her late 60’s and having just been diagnosed with cancer, was none the less sentenced to 28 months in prison. Yet this wasn’t enough, for the following year an appeals court ordered the trial judge to enhance her sentence, and Lynne Stewart was resentenced to 10 years in prison.
Last month, after Lynne’s successful surgery, she received the hard news that her appeal of the enhanced sentence was denied. She still has the 10 year sentence and is still a political prisoner in a federal prison in Texas.
This whole travesty of justice gets more interesting. The new democratically elected President of Egypt, has just requested that the U.S. government immediately release and return Omar Abdel Rahman to Egypt, where he is seen as an important person and leader.
With her health now improving, Lynne intends to appeal to the Supreme Court and continues to stay optimistic that real justice will prevail in her case.
This is Jaan Laaman, coming to you from the federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. Until next time remember, Freedom is a Constant Struggle!
