Former soldier found guilty of travelling to join ISIS claims she suffered multiple serious assaults while in Syria and says she never joined the terror group
Former Irish soldier Lisa Smith led a 'totally anonymous' life while living in Syria and there was no 'smoking gun' that she did anything for the so-called Islamic State (IS) terror group, her lawyer has claimed.
Smith, 43, from Dundalk in Co Louth, is appealing against her conviction for being a member of the unlawful organisation.
The ex-Defence Forces member was found guilty of IS membership in 2023 but was cleared of financing terrorism after a nine-week trial at Dublin's Special Criminal Court.
Smith went to Syria in 2015 after terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on Muslims to travel to the country.
She had pleaded not guilty to charges of membership of IS and providing funds to benefit the group.
Smith was handed 15 months in prison and lost an appeal over the severity of the sentence.
Arguing at the Court of Appeal, her barrister Michael O'Higgins said that Smith travelled to Syria out of a religious obligation, but that the court had dismissed that as 'irrelevant'.
O'Higgins said the court cannot ignore and deem inadmissible what the person's motive was to travel to Syria, adding that it was a 'flaw' to assume Smith was going there to do something unlawful.
Smith went to Syria in 2015 after terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on Muslims to travel to the country
The ex-Defence Forces member was found guilty of IS membership in 2023 but was cleared of financing terrorism after a nine-week trial at Dublin's Special Criminal Court
She had pleaded not guilty to charges of membership of IS and providing funds to benefit the group
He said that she led a 'totally anonymous' life in Syria, adding that there was no 'smoking gun or burning match' that she did anything for IS.
The court was told that Smith shopped and bought food and was subjected to serious assaults during her time there.
O'Higgins questioned what membership of an organisation looked like, saying that membership is not nor could ever include 'avid supporters' of a group.
He said that membership did not include someone who agreed with an unlawful organisation's aims, or members of a community who benefited from the actions of the illegal organisation.
O'Higgins gave the example of paramilitaries in Northern Ireland who ran a parallel justice system during the Troubles.
He said that some communities benefited from a decrease in anti-social behaviour but that those people did not become members of the IRA or UDA.
O'Higgins told the court that a fanatic who attacked a former RUC station or planted a bomb or did anything that mirrored the actions of the IRA did not automatically become a member.
The court was told that membership is not a state of mind or a virus.
He added that membership is not done by osmosis, that there must be some sort of application and acceptance to become a member.
O'Higgins said that she led a 'totally anonymous' life in Syria, adding that there was no 'smoking gun or burning match' that she did anything for IS
The court was told that Smith shopped and bought food and was subjected to serious assaults during her time there
Arguing at the Court of Appeal, her barrister Michael O'Higgins said that Smith travelled to Syria out of a religious obligation, but that the court had dismissed that as 'irrelevant'
Mr Justice John Edwards interjected and said that illegal organisations would not keep a register of membership, and proof of membership of the IRA is never adduced by the production of records.
Turning to social media posts by Smith, O'Higgins said that they predated her travelling to Syria and that 90 per cent of them were 'very mundane' and included posts about scriptures.
He said Smith did not use social media to post propaganda material about IS and Syria, and that her online posts 'pale in significance' to the keyboard warriors.
Her 2022 conviction meant she became the first person to be convicted in an Irish court of an Islamic terrorist offence committed abroad.
At the time, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said that that while Smith is a low risk for re-offending, she was persistent and determined in her efforts to travel to Syria and join Isis and has shown no remorse for her actions.
Smith left the Irish military in 2011 after converting to Islam four years earlier and travelled in 2015 on a one-way ticket to a IS-controlled region in Syria, where she married Sajid Aslam.
At the time, the hardline Islamists ruled over vast swathes of Syria and Iraq, attracting thousands of foreign fighters to their cause before the group's defeat in the region.
Prosecutors outlined how she expressed a desire on an Islamic Facebook page to live under Sharia law and to die a martyr in 2012.
Smith left the Irish military in 2011 after converting to Islam four years earlier and travelled in 2015 on a one-way ticket to a IS-controlled region in Syria, where she married Sajid Aslam
Smith was held in the notorious Al-Hawl and Ain Issa refugee camps in northern Syria while she waited to be sent home to Ireland after fleeing the city of Raqqa.
Her lawyer asked for her to be spared jail as she had already served a custodial sentence in Syrian camps.
He claimed IS members in the camps imposed cruel punishments on other refugees including, in some cases, setting their tents on fire and killing them in the process.
Thousands of people from Western countries were thought to have travelled to Syria or Iraq to join IS during their reign of terror, while others have been convicted of providing support for the group from abroad.
Yesterday Sinmya Amera Ceasar, from Brooklyn in the US, was sentenced to 19 years in federal prison for providing support to IS, obstructing justice, and attempting to flee the US to avoid sentencing.
She had used multiple social media accounts to spread propaganda, recruit others in the US to travel abroad and join the terror group, and even expressed her own desire to become a martyr, according to the US Department of Justice.
