NEW YORK, NY October 17, 2006 —A defiant Lynne Stewart thanked a federal judge for a lenient sentence and told a crowd of chanting supporters she hoped to practice law again some day. WNYC’s Fred Mogul has more.

The civil rights attorney is free pending appeal, after receiving a 28-month sentence from Judge John Koetl. Koetl rebuked Stewart for “severely criminal conduct” in smuggling messages to and from her imprisoned client, Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman – who was calling on militant followers to abandon a ceasefire with the Egyptian government.

Rahman is serving a life sentence for inspiring a plot that would have blown up the United Nations and other sites around New York. But the judge also praised Stewart for performing service “not only to your clients but to our nation” over three decades of representing the “poor, disadvantaged and unpopular” clients -– including Abdul Rahman.

Koetl gave a similarly light sentence to Stewart’s translator, but was not so lenient on a paralegal who worked for the Egyptian cleric. Ahmed Abdel Sattar, of Staten Island, was sentenced to 24 years in jail for his role in drafting a fatwah calling on Muslims to kill Jews.