Reporters may testify at trial Fri Jun 18, 2004 BY PETE BOWLES, Staff Writer June 17, 2004, 11:59 PM EDT Lawyers for three reporters who have been subpoenaed to testify at the federal trial of attorney Lynne Stewart will argue in court today that their appearances would undermine their independence and neutrality. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl, who is presiding over the trial in Manhattan, has set a hearing for 10 a.m. on motions filed by news organizations seeking to cancel the subpoenas. The reporters have been subpoenaed by prosecutors to confirm statements Stewart made in published articles. Stewart and two co-defendants, Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker, and Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter, are charged with conspiring to relay messages from imprisoned radical Islamic cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman to his followers in the Islamic Group, an Egyptian-based terrorist organization. Subpoenas went to Patricia Hurtado, a federal court reporter for Newsday; Esmat Salaheddin, a Reuters reporter based in Cairo; Joseph Fried, a reporter for The New York Times, and George Packer, a freelance reporter who has written for The New York Times Magazine. Attorneys for the organizations maintain that forcing the reporters to testify would compromise their neutrality by putting them on the side of the prosecution. Stephanie Abrutyn, in-house counsel for Newsday, said Hurtado should not be called as a witness because she will be covering the trial. "It is not appropriate to subpoena a reporter covering a trial to testify in that trial," Abrutyn said. Lawyers for Salaheddin, Fried and Packer will be in court today. Hurtado's motion is scheduled later. Prosecutors, in court papers, have said they only want the reporters to confirm comments they quoted Stewart as making. They said they would not question the reporters about confidential sources or about anything Stewart said that was not published. A jury for Stewart's trial is to be selected Monday from a pool of several dozen candidates. Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.