The 40-year-old, a former member of the Irish Defense Force, was found guilty in May after a nine-week trial at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court without a jury. Handing down the verdict, Judge Tony Hunt said the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that he traveled to Syria “with his eyes open” and pledged allegiance to the group, then led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The three-judge tribunal acquitted Smith of a separate charge of financing terrorism by sending €800 (£680) for medical treatment for a Syrian in Turkey. Smith, from Dundalk, County Louth, was a member of the Irish Defense Forces from 2001 until 2011, when she converted to Islam. She applied for discharge, according to the court, because of an inconsistency between her faith and her role in the army, in particular the refusal of permission to wear a hijab. In October 2015, he bought a one-way ticket, traveled from Dublin to Turkey and crossed the border into an area of Syria controlled by Islamic State. The judge said the purpose of Smith’s trip to Syria was to complete her developing relationship with Islamic State. There, after a previous marriage ended, she married Sajid Aslam, a Briton who the court was told “took a sniper course on her advice”. Image: Smith was an Irish soldier before converting to Islam Smith had a daughter, born in June 2017, before returning to Ireland in December 2019 after the fall of Islamic State. He was arrested at Dublin Airport and charged with terrorist offences. Read more: Irish ex-soldier convicted as IS member IS bride Lisa Smith arrested in Dublin after being deported from Turkey Lisa Smith: Alleged IS member and Irish ex-soldier encouraged British husband to take classes sniper, the court said During her trial, the court was told that Smith had “attempted to gain access to territory controlled by the Islamic State and sought the means by which this could be done”. The prosecution said Smith had “wrapped herself in the standard or black flag of the Islamic State”.
