Lynne Stewart and friends ‘celebrate’

Pam Africa speaks at Lynne Stewart event.

Attorney Lynne Stewart, known for her defense of vilified prisoners, joined her supporters in a celebration Dec. 9 in Judson Memorial Church in New York. She had recently been found guilty, but she said she and her supporters did win: The government wanted a sentence of 30 years and the judge gave her less than two.

This was for spurious charges of “terrorism” that involved her energetic defense of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in a case growing out of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Stewart and her supporters held a celebration with wine and food, music from the Raging Grannies, a wonderful poem on Katrina recited to music by Professor Louie, a monologue from comedian Irwin Corey and speeches by Stewart and Pam Africa.

Stewart not only thanked her supporters but also announced that she is going to appeal her conviction. Meanwhile the government is trying to appeal her sentence, which it considers too short.

In addition, Stewart firmly denounced the torture that the U.S. government used against Jose Padilla after he was accused of plotting to use a “dirty bomb.” She said it confirmed what her client told her about how badly he was treated. Padilla had been held for nearly two years in a South Carolina brig without access to a lawyer, family or friends after he was declared an “enemy combatant” in June 2002, and he is still held virtually incommunicado and in shackles.

Pam Africa of the MOVE organization, who had come from a protest supporting Mumia Abu-Jamal in Philadelphia held earlier in the day, congratulated Stewart on her victory.

—Report and photo by G. Dunkel