-------------------- Civil rights lawyer ready to testify in the trial of her life -------------------- By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer October 12, 2004, 1:18 PM EDT NEW YORK -- In a fighting mood, lawyer Lynne Stewart will testify Wednesday in her defense, days after prosecutors finished their case against her by dramatically invoking Osama bin Laden and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "That was a very low blow," said Stewart, who prosecutors say helped a convicted terrorist incite violence against the United States. The judge had previously told jurors the case has nothing to do with Sept. 11. "I want to be the boxer who gets hit with low blows and nevertheless recovers and knocks the guy out," she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. To do so, Stewart will have to overcome three months of government evidence that includes jailhouse conversations between herself and her terrorism client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted in a 1995 plot to blow up New York City landmarks. Stewart, 65, maintains the conversations show nothing more than a lawyer zealously representing a client serving a life sentence who wants to maintain his status as a leader in the militant Muslim community. Prosecutors, though, say Stewart stepped over the line, conspiring with a translator and a U.S. postal worker to help the blind Egyptian sheik communicate with followers who favor terrorism as a tool. At stake is a three-decades-old law career during which Stewart has defended a range of clients, including revolutionaries, terrorists and mobsters. She could face nearly 20 years in prison if she is found guilty of aiding terrorism after breaking special rules put in place by the U.S. government to stop the sheik from communicating outside prison. Stewart's testimony, which may last a week or more, is expected to include what she told the sheik before her arrest and what she told thousands of people afterward. Stewart's co-defendants _ Arabic interpreter Mohamed Yousry and U.S. postal worker Ahmed Abdel Sattar _ are also expected to testify. Prosecutors declined to comment prior to Stewart's testimony, said Megan L. Gaffney, a government spokeswoman. In more than two years since her arrest, Stewart has made numerous public statements. She has traveled the country, speaking mostly to audiences sympathetic to her message that she was swept up in a post Sept. 11-crackdown on civil rights aimed even at the lawyers who defend unpopular clients. She appeared on "60 Minutes," did numerous other media interviews and wrote an Internet blog on the trial itself. A July 20 entry described "tapes and monotone readings by the Government Troupe, interspersed with fierce legal arguments." In the same blog report, she accused the government of advancing a "continuing smear" that included entering evidence related to bin Laden "no matter how remote and tenuous the connection." Stewart said Monday that her public attacks on the government since her arrest began after one of her lawyers advised her to evade reporters waiting for her outside federal court following her release from custody in April 2002. "'There's a million press out there. Don't talk to them. You're tired,"' she recalled being told. But Stewart disagreed, finding that the arrest only six months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks made it even more important to speak out. "I said, 'There's so much secrecy. Everybody's hiding. This is the time to let the sunshine in. This is wrong. This is an attack on lawyering as we know it,"' she said. "So I did step up to the mic that day and have been doing so ever since." The flow of words may turn out to be a treasure trove for prosecutors who can shape a cross examination using hundreds of examples of Stewart's statements. A clever lawyer can use inconsistencies, even innocent ones made outside the courtroom, to attack the credibility of a witness. Stewart said she has reviewed much of what she has said and found herself to be consistent, though not perfectly so. "I'm human too," she said. "I believe the upshot is that my true beliefs are my true beliefs and they haven't really changed from the day I got arrested until the day I take the witness stand." She said she will keep in mind the words of her grandmother: "If you go with the truth, you don't have to remember what the story is." Copyright (c) 2004, The Associated Press