Lawyer Guilty of Aiding Terrorists Faces 20 Years in Jail

An American civil rights lawyer was yesterday convicted of aiding terrorism by smuggling secret messages from an Islamist client, who was jailed for plotting to destroy several New York landmarks, to his followers outside.

Lynne Stewart, 65, built a fierce reputation fighting for the poor, the dispossessed, radicals and revolutionaries in her 30-year career. She was found guilty of conspiracy, giving material support to terrorists and defrauding the United States government. She faces up to 20 years in prison.

The case has attracted intense scrutiny in the US. Some lawyers have argued that Ms Stewart has been the target of vindictive and overzealous prosecutors, punishing her for acting in defence of unpopular clients.

Her defence lawyer suggested she was the victim of an overreaching Bush administration engaged in a "cynical effort to target and destroy" her career. The verdict also sends a warning to lawyers defending suspected terrorists. Ms Stewart has vehemently denied the charges. Minutes before the verdict in a New York court yesterday, she told reporters: "I'm scared, worried." The jury had been deliberating for 13 days.

Ms Stewart's client, the blind Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, was sentenced to life in 1996 for conspiring to as sassinate Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and plotting to destroy parts of New York, including the United Nations building and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels.

Prosecutors said Ms Stewart and two co-defendants carried messages between Abdel-Rahman and members of his terrorist network. At the time he was in solitary confinement.

During the trial the prosecutors played videotape recordings of conversations between Ms Stewart and her client. The FBI secretly recorded 85,000 telephone calls and faxes.

It failed to produce any first hand witnesses. Her defence said she had done nothing wrong by defending her client.

She faces sentencing on July 15.