NEW YORK — A judge ruled Friday that a federal jury can hear the 2000 fatwa Osama bin Laden issued declaring he wanted to "kill Americans" when considering the case against activist lawyer Lynne Stewart.
U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl also ruled that jurors can hear a witness describe the 1997 killings of 58 tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor, Egypt.
Jury selection begins June 21.
Stewart and her co-defendants, Mohammed Yousry and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, are charged with conspiring with imprisoned radical Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman between 1997 and 2002 to help pass messages to his followers in violation of special restrictions the government imposed on the cleric.
The restrictions, called "special administrative measures," or SAMs, severely limit Abdel Rahman's contacts with the outside world.
Stewart defended Rahman in his 1995 trial in which he and his followers were convicted in a foiled plot to bomb New York landmarks. Stewart, who continued to represent Abdel Rahman after his imprisonment, has denied wrongdoing, as have her co-defendants.
