Under cross-examination that at times grew testy, a co-defendant of activist lawyer Lynne Stewart admitted yesterday that he had sent money to and corresponded with at least 15 Islamic men convicted of terrorist charges, including Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Ahmed Sattar, a U.S. postal worker who served as a paralegal for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman beginning soon after the sheik's arrest in July 1993, is accused of conspiring with Stewart and Mohamed Yousry, an interpreter for Abdel-Rahman, to pass messages from the imprisoned sheik to his terrorist followers. The sheik is serving a life term after having been convicted in 1995 of a plot to bomb New York landmarks and inciting followers to conduct the first World Trade Center attack. Stewart defended the sheik in that case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Morvillo grilled Sattar in Manhattan about his knowledge of the sheik, the Islamic Group and their goals to overthrow the secular Egyptian government. Sattar insisted the Islamic Group sought, "not to overthrow the government, but to replace it."
| I guess it all depends on what your definition of "overthrow" is |
Morvillo also questioned Sattar about a list of 14 convicted terrorists that was found in his possession that included their inmate numbers and mailing addresses.
"You have corresponded with people convicted of terrorism-related charges?" Morvillo asked. "Yes," Sattar replied. "They were sending me letters asking for me to assist ... some were calling me that they are in need of money and, as a point of the charity for many Muslims, especially during Ramadan, I used to send them money. Yes, they are criminals, but they are also human beings." Morvillo asked Sattar if he knew Yousef, and Sattar replied, "I never met Ramzi Yousef ... I never spoke to him."
| "Nope, nope, never talked to him" |
"Wasn't it true you had some letters from him?" Morvillo asked. "Yes, I had a letter," Sattar said, explaining that he had published a Muslim newspaper and that after he stopped publishing it, Yousef "sent me a letter asking me why we stopped sending it to him. That was my only contact with him..."
| "You said talk to him, never asked about writing. That's different" |
Morvillo asked Sattar if "jihad" to Abdel-Rahman meant "jihad by the sword." Sattar insisted "jihad" was a struggle in one's heart, adding, "it could mean by hand, by intention and the act of opposing something." Morvillo showed him one of the sheik's sermons found among Sattar's possessions in which the sheik declares, "If God ... say do a jihad, it means do it with the sword, with the cannon, with the grenade and with the missile; this is jihad." Sattar conceded, "Right here in this sermon ... he is saying that, yes."
| "Thank you, next witness" |
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