US lawyer released from 10-year sentence on compassionate grounds

Lynne Stewart, convicted in 2005 for helping a client smuggle messages out of prison to a terrorist organisation, has been released from jail early because she is dying of cancer.

Released early SSSCCC

Now 74, Ms Stewart had been helping Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman communicate, from his prison cell, with the so-called Islamic Group, an organisation which had been listed as a terrorist entity by the US authorities. Ms Stewart is said to have 18 months to live, at the maximum. Her lawyer, Jill Shellow, said: 'My client and I are overjoyed that she will be able to spend her remaining days with her family.  It restores my faith in the Department of Justice to do the right thing.' Source: Reuters

Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]

Top