United States v. Stewar

Facts

Ds were Lynne Stewart, Mohammed Yousry, and Ahmed Abdel Sattar. The transcript of the trials in the cases on appeal runs in excess of thirteen thousand pages. In October 1995, Rahman was convicted of a variety of terrorism-related crimes. In a speech to his followers Rahman instructed that they were to 'do jihad with the sword, with the cannon, with the grenades, with the missile . . . against God's enemies.' Rahman's role in the conspiracy was generally limited to overall supervision and direction of the membership, as he made efforts to remain a level above the details of individual operations. As a cleric and the group's leader, Rahman was entitled to dispense fatwas, religious opinions on the holiness of an act, to members of the group sanctioning proposed courses of conduct and advising them whether the acts would be in furtherance of jihad. Rahman was convicted of soliciting the murder of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak while he was visiting New York City; attacking American military installations; conspiring to murder President Mubarak; conspiring to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993, which succeeded; conspiring to bomb various structures in New York City, including bridges, tunnels, and the federal building containing the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which did not succeed; and conspiring to commit crimes of sedition. Rahman was sentenced to life. Following his conviction and appeal, Rahman's legal team focused on two goals: improving his conditions of confinement, and obtaining his transfer from prison in the United States to Egypt. P asserts that Rahman was linked to various other acts of violence and major terrorist organizations. 'Federal regulations provide that the Bureau of Prisons may implement Special Administrative Measures (SAMs), 'upon direction of the Attorney General,' when 'reasonably necessary to protect persons against the risk of death or serious bodily injury.' P imposed severely restrictive SAMs upon him. They were designed to prevent him from directing or facilitating yet more violent acts of terrorism from his prison cell. The SAMs have been renewed and sometimes modified, every 120 days since they were first imposed. The measures limited his telephone contacts solely to his attorneys of record and his wife, and prevented matters discussed in those calls from being 'divulged in any manner to any third party.' The measures required the screening of all his outgoing and incoming non-legal mail and prohibited him from 'talking with, or otherwise communicating with, any representative of the news media,' including 'through his attorneys/staff, or otherwise.' he measures also provided for the monitoring of all non-legal visits. On the condition that his attorneys would not divulge any information to third parties, Rahman was permitted to communicate with his legal team by telephone, and in-person, with fewer restrictions than with other persons. Members of this legal team included lawyers Ramsey Clark, Abdeen Jabara, Lawrence Schilling, and defendant Lynne Stewart. Stewart (D) repeatedly executed statements in which she affirmed, under penalty of perjury, the truth of specified statements regarding the then-applicable SAMs: that she had read that particular version of the SAMs; that she 'understood the restrictions contained in that document and agreed to abide by its terms'; that during her visits to Rahman she would 'employ only cleared translators/interpreters and would not leave any translator/interpreter alone with Rahman'; and that she would 'only be accompanied by translators for the purpose of communicating with Rahman concerning legal matters.' D also affirmed that neither she nor any member of her office would 'forward any mail received from Rahman to a third person' nor would she 'use her meetings, correspondence or phone calls with Rahman to pass messages between third parties (including, but not limited to, the media) and Rahman.' Mohammed Yousry served as one of the legal team's translators had also been, in that capacity, a member of Rahman's trial team. As a translator, Yousry was permitted to read to Rahman, who is blind, and to take dictation from him. Ahmed Abdel Sattar had served as a paralegal during Rahman's trial. The evidence established that Sattar was in continual contact with various members of a terrorist organization abroad. Sattar was in contact with members of al-Gama'a, who were divided over their support for what remained of a cease-fire. Pro-cease-fire and anti-cease-fire factions developed, and members of the organization wanted Rahman to take a position on the matter. Several wrote messages addressed to Rahman, which they sent to Sattar for delivery. Sattar gave the messages to Stewart and Yousry, who surreptitiously brought the messages with them to Rahman during a subsequent visit in May 2000. Yousry read the messages to Rahman during the visit, and Rahman dictated to Yousry responses to some of them. Yousry and Stewart then smuggled the responses out among their legal papers and sent them to Sattar. As directed by Rahman, Sattar informed various members of al-Gama'a that Rahman was willing to reconsider the effectiveness of the cease-fire and had rejected the associated idea that al-Gama'a should form a political party in Egypt. To refute charges of fabrication of the message, former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark told a reporter for an Arabic-language newspaper that Rahman opposed al-Gama'a's formation of a political party. More messages were sent to Rahman to support the termination of the cease-fire and noting that Taha and his associates needed a 'powerful word' from Rahman to achieve this goal. Clark and Yousry surreptitiously took the letter, along with newspaper articles relating to the killing of Kidwani in Egypt, with them during a visit to Rahman.  Yousry read the letter and newspaper clippings aloud to Rahman. Rahman dictated a letter to Yousry in response. Rahman supported the termination of the ceasefire. Sattar expected Clark to make a public statement to similar effect, but Clark declined to do so. Yousry and Abdeen Jabara, an Arabic-speaking lawyer and member of Rahman's legal team, visited Rahman and brought another letter which included another message asking for Rahman's support for ending the ceasefire. But Jabara would not permit Rahman to dictate a letter to Yousry in response. Jabara refused to issue any public statement regarding Rahman's position on the matter. Stewart met with Sattar, who gave her more letters for Rahman, including another message from Taha yet again seeking Rahman's approval of an end to the cease-fire. Stewart and Yousry visited Rahman, taking Sattar's most recent letters with them, including the letter containing the message from Taha. P, pursuant to a warrant, videotaped the meetings. Yousry told  Rahman that Abu Sayyaf -- an Islamic terrorist group in the Philippines -- had taken hostages to be used in bargaining for the release of Rahman and others. When Yousry explained to Stewart that he was 'telling the Sheikh about the Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines' and how 'they took hostages,' Stewart replied, 'Good for them.' During this meeting, Stewart and Yousry took overt steps to ensure that the nature of their communication with Rahman would be concealed from the prison guards. After an exchange at deception, Stewart remarked, 'I can get an academy award for it.' On the second day of the same visit, Rahman dictated to Yousry, among other things, a letter to an al-Gama'a lawyer who favored the cease-fire, asking him to allow others in al-Gama'a to criticize it, and another to Taha asking him to 'escalate the language' of criticism of the cease-fire. Stewart and Yousry continued to engage in what Stewart later called 'covering noises,' and other tactics designed to obscure the nature of what they were doing. After one such incident, Yousry explained to Rahman, 'she just has to say that in order to break the . . . The people are looking.' Stewart and Yousry took the Yousry-transcribed responses from Rahman with them from the prison and later gave them to Sattar. Sattar then passed them along to Taha and another member of al-Gama'a. Sattar also spoke to various members of al-Gama'a, informing them that Rahman would have 'no objection' to a return to violence. Sattar and Stewart spoke to Esmat Salaheddin, a Reuters reporter based in Cairo. Stewart told Salaheddin that Rahman 'is withdrawing his support for the ceasefire that currently exists.' She explained that Rahman had made the statement from prison two weeks before. Stewart participated in a telephone conference with Rahman. She then sent another statement on Rahman's behalf via facsimile to Salaheddin, the Reuters reporter in Cairo. The telecopy said, 'Everything said in the previous statements is correct' and quoted Rahman as saying, 'I do withdraw my support to the [cease-fire] initiative.' And yet another meeting occurred with Rahman with yet more messages and responses. Ds were indicted. A jury found Ds guilty on all counts of conspiring to defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.  Stewart and Yousry were convicted of providing and concealing material support to the conspiracy to murder. Stewart was also convicted of making false statements in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001. Sattar was sentenced to a 288-month term of incarceration to be followed by a five-year term of supervised release and a $300 special assessment; Stewart was sentenced to a 28-month term of incarceration to be followed by a two-year term of supervised release and a $500 special assessment; and Yousry was sentenced to a 20-month term of incarceration to be followed by a two-year term of supervised release and a $300 special assessment. Stewart and Yousry are free on bail pending appeal. Ds appealed. 

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

© 2007-2024 ABN Study Partner.