Federal officials have denied a compassionate release to the cancer-stricken civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart. The 73-year-old imprisoned grandmother is fighting stage IV cancer that has metastasized, spreading to her lymph nodes, shoulder, bones and lungs. Stewart is serving a 10-year sentence in a federal prison near Fort Worth, Texas. In 2005, she was found guilty of distributing press releases on behalf of her jailed client, Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the “Blind Sheikh,” who is serving a life sentence for conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks in 1995. Stewart’s prison warden had recommended that she be released to undergo cancer treatment. But Stewart’s family says it has been told by the Federal Bureau of Prisons that her bid for release was denied on the grounds that her “health is improving.” In a statement, the International Action Center called the government’s claim “cynical and false,” and said it will hold a series of protests in the coming weeks to demand Stewart’s release.