A former Irish soldier who traveled to Syria and became an ISIS bride was sentenced to 15 months in prison in a Dublin court on Friday.
Lisa Smith, 40, from Dundalk, Laus, joined the ISIS terrorist group between October 28, 2015 and December 1, 2019, after a nine-week trial in Dublin’s Special Criminal Court. I was convicted of belonging.
However, she was exempt from another responsibility to fund the group.
Smith was the first person to be charged and convicted in Ireland for a terrorist crime committed abroad.
Smith served in the Defense Forces of Ireland from 2001 to 2011. She converted to Islam in 2010 and she left the army the year after she was denied permission to wear a hijab.
According to fellow Islamic convert Carol Karima Duffy, who testified in court, Smith began talking to ISIS recruiters online, focusing on the “harsh end of Islam.”
Smith went to Syria in October 2015 after ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on Muslims to go to Syria.
Despite knowing that Smith would be a housewife in Syria, she later believed that living in an Islamic State was her religious obligation, she later told Irish police officers.
In Syria, Smith married the British jihadist Sajid Aslam. Sajid Aslam said he was killed in battle and gave birth to a daughter in 2017.
After the collapse of ISIS in 2019, Smith and her daughter returned to Ireland and she was arrested at Dublin Airport.
Smith’s lawyer was previously suspended due to the abuse he suffered during his marriage to Aslam, the detention he endured in a Syrian camp before returning to Ireland, and the two strict bail conditions imposed on her. Insisted that the judgment should be made. Half a year in Ireland.
O’Higgins SC also asked the court to consider Smith’s child, and a psychological report about Smith “presented a picture of a very vulnerable person, but the associated vulnerabilities were in her hands. It’s a very high level Stoic in terms of dealing with it. “
Judge Smith and presiding judge Tony Hunt said he was happy that Smith was unlikely to re-offend.
The judge acknowledged evidence that Smith “obeyed rather than led”, but said she had decided to go to Syria.
“She may have been easily guided, but then showed characteristics of resilience-her family’s refusal, a trip to Syria, and staying there until the end,” he said.
He also said Smith “had a hard time in Syria”, which was a “foreseeable result” of joining ISIS.
Mr Hunt said the three judges had taken into account Smith’s previous “good personality” and the fact that she “actively contributed to society during military service.”
The judge also admitted that living in a Syrian camp was “difficult” and “equivalent” to being in prison, which gave him a “substantial” discount from Smith’s ruling. ..
The maximum sentence for violation is 8 years.
PA Media contributed to this report.
follow
Lily Zhou is a freelance writer who mainly covers the British news of The Epoch Times.