A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld a 10 year prison sentence for a disbarred lawyer who helped her jailed terrorist client smuggle messages to his followers.

The three-judge panel in New York wrote Thursday that Lynne Stewart still refuses to understand the seriousness of her crime.

Stewart was originally sentenced to 28 months in prison in 2006, and showed apparent contempt for the court by telling reporters that she could serve the time “standing on her head.”

Federal prosecutors appealed the sentence as being too light and a court re-sentenced her in 2010.

Stewart's lawyer says his 72 year-old client is ill and calls the longer sentence a blow against free speech.

Stewart was the lawyer for blind Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is serving life in prison for planning terrorist attacks in New York City.