Reporters Fight Subpoenas in N.Y. Terror Trial

By: (AP) Reporters at three news organizations are resisting subpoenas issued in the trial of a lawyer charged with conspiring to support terrorists.

Prosecutors issued subpoenas to four reporters at Reuters, The New York Times and Newsday of Melville, N.Y., saying they want the reporters to testify that lawyer Lynne Stewart said what they quoted her as saying in their articles.

Newspaper articles on their own are not admissible because they are considered hearsay.

Lawyers for the reporters have argued that making the reporters testify would compromise their neutrality by forcing them to side with prosecutors.

In a motion filed Monday, a lawyer for Newsday argued that its subpoenaed reporter, Patricia Hurtado, might have to stop covering the trial if she is required to testify.

Prosecutors say the subpoenas do not violate the reporters' First Amendment rights because they will not be questioned about confidential sources or off-the-record statements.

Stewart and two co-defendants are being tried on charges that they helped imprisoned Egyptian Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman communicate with the Islamic Group, an Egyptian-based terrorist organization.

Prosecutors say all three defendants conspired to obstruct the U.S. government from its efforts to cut off communications between the sheik and the rest of the world from June 1997 to April 2002.

Abdel-Rahman is serving a life sentence for conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks and assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.