Lisa Smith sentenced to 15 months for membership of Islamic State

Photo Credit: Collins Courts

The Dundalk woman was convicted in May of travelling to Syria to join the group after converting to Islam and leaving her position in the Defence Forces.

The former Irish soldier cried as the sentence was read out. She had faced a maximum term of eight years. Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the matter lay at the lower end of the scale of severity and that there is nothing more than “justifiable suspicion” about what she did while in Syria.

Nevertheless it is a serious matter, he said. The court said the “headline sentence” was two years and six months. In light of Smith’s mitigation and military service, a “substantial discount” of 50 per cent was applied, leading to a final sentence of 15 months.

Mr Justice Hunt noted she was a victim of domestic violence while in Syria and is the mother of a young child. Smith showed signs of being easily led but also resilience and determination, the judge said. He said she does not appear to be a present or future danger.

Smith was brought back from Syria via Turkey in December 2019 by Department of Foreign Affairs officials and the Army Ranger Wing.

Prior to this she had been living in a refugee camp with her young child in northern Syria following the collapse of Islamic State, also known as Isis.

She was arrested on return to Ireland and charged with travelling to join a foreign terrorist organisation, becoming the first person to be charged with such an offence in Ireland.

The non-jury Special Criminal Court rejected Smith’s claims that she had gone to Islamic State simply out of a sense of religious obligation and for the innocent purpose of living under Sharia law and raising a family in a Muslim state.

Mr Justice Hunt noted religion is “irrelevant to membership of Isis” as criminal activity cannot be justified by religious obligation. He said a person would not gain immunity for arson, assault or murder because he believed he had a religious obligation to persecute witches.

The court found Smith not guilty of a second charge of funding terrorism, saying it is reasonably possible that she sent €800 to Isis fighter and propagandist John Georgelas in May 2015 for his personal use or for “humanitarian reasons”, after he had been injured during fighting in Syria.

Mr Justice Hunt then went through the evidence relating to membership and said the prosecution had established beyond reasonable doubt that Smith travelled to Syria with her “eyes wide open” and pledged allegiance to the organisation led by terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Smith, from Dundalk, Co Louth, had pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful terrorist group, Islamic State, between October 28th, 2015, and December 1st, 2019. She also pleaded not guilty to financing terrorism by sending €800 in assistance, via a Western Union money transfer, to a named man on May 6th, 2015.

Smith denied she went to join a terrorist organisation.

The prosecution alleged that by travelling in answer to a call by al-Baghdadi for all Muslims to come to Syria, Smith joined a terrorist organisation.

It said people like Smith were the “life blood” of Isis and critical to its mission to spread its version of Islam by violence and murder.

Mr Justice Hunt said the court accepts that Isis is a terrorist organisation that controlled parts of Syria and Iraq when Smith decided to travel to its territory in late 2015. He said social media messages between Smith and various Isis hardliners, including Georgelas, supported the prosecution’s assertion that she knew what Isis was doing and supported its aims.



PUKmedia/The Irish Times