Freedom Socialist Party news update
Appeals Court upholds conviction of civil liberties attorney Lynne Stewart
A U.S. appeals court announced that it has upheld the conviction of movement attorney Lynne Stewart and instructed trial Judge John G. Koeltl to consider lengthening Stewart's 28-month sentence. The three-judge panel also revoked her bail and ordered her to report to prison "forthwith."
Stewart was convicted in 2005 for conveying information from her jailed client to an Egyptian group the U.S. defined as "terrorist." The appeals court took 191 pages to make their case against Stewart, a longtime defense lawyer for political dissidents and poor and oppressed defendants, and an articulate critic of the U.S. justice system.
At a press conference the same day, she assured reporters, "I will keep fighting. I am not a criminal."
Stewart has been unable to work for several years and is in financial straits. Donations for the fight can be sent to: Lynne Stewart Organization, 350 Broadway, Ste. 700, New York, NY 10013.
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This letter on behalf of the Freedom Socialist Party was presented to civil liberties attorney Lynne Stewart on November 18, the day an appeals court upheld her conviction. FSP comrades had joined Lynne and her supporters at a protest in Foley Square in New York City.
Dear Lynne,
On behalf the all the comrades in the Freedom Socialist Party, I am writing to express our collective outrage at the decision remanding you to prison—a decision that came down like a thunderclap, as you said on WBAI radio this morning. We agree with your allusion to the coincidence of this decision with the impending federal trials of alleged terrorists here in New York City. The system currently is addicted to anti-terrorist hysteria to accomplish its goals.
In this instance and in the cases of many others, some of whom you have defended, capitalism reveals its most brutal and callous side. The prosecution's attempt in the Federal Appeal Court to impugn your personal integrity with accusations that you lied in your trial in describing your radical politics is slanderous. Here once again, you join the illustrious list of defendants such as Mumia Abu Jamal, Victor Toro, Leonard Peltier, Farouk Abdel Muhti and Eugene Debs in defending our collective Constitutional right to oppose discrimination, political repression, war and genocide.
The government's greatest crime is that in upending your career we are denied one of the movement's most brilliant and dedicated lawyers, not to mention the personal consequences that your conviction has caused you and your family.
We stand in solidarity with you and are ready to defend your warrior status by any means necessary.
In solidarity,
Stephen Durham
New York City Organizer
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