By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Lynne Stewart, a civil rights lawyer convicted of aiding a terrorist, saw her 28-month sentence bumped up to 10 years on Thursday, the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced.
Stewart, 70, was convicted for helping jailed terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman communicate with his radical followers by smuggling messages into and out of prison for him. The Egyptian sheik was convicted of plotting to blow up Manhattan landmarks.
Stewart was convicted in 2005 of providing "material support to a conspiracy to kill and kidnap individuals in a foreign country, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and making false statements."
The lawyer was sentenced to 28 months in the 2006 trial, but an appeals court reportedly ordered Federal Judge John Koeltl to reconsider Stewart's sentence in November, saying she may have lied during the trial.
Stewart, who is being treated for breast cancer, said her condition had deteriorated since she was imprisoned in November 2009, and pleaded unsuccessfully with the judge to maintain the 28-month sentence.
But Judge Koeltl agreed that Stewart had committed perjury, and sentenced Stewart to 10 years Thursday. The judge said she lacked remorse after her first sentencing, the Associated Press reported. Stewart reportedly saw her sentence as "trivial."
"Lynne Stewart broke the oath she swore as an attorney and now stands sentenced in the system of laws she betrayed," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a statement.
