Irish court to sentence ex-soldier for joining the Islamic State in Syria

Dublin’s Special Criminal Court was on Friday expected to sentence former soldier Lisa Smith, who was found guilty of joining the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.

The 40-year-old mother of one from Dundalk on Ireland’s east coast, was convicted in May of belonging to the terror group between October 28, 2015 and December 1, 2019.

She faces a maximum sentence of eight years for membership of a proscribed terrorist organisation. Her lawyer said Smith’s offence was at the lower end of the scale and has urged the judges to consider imposing a suspended sentence.

She was acquitted by three judges on a separate charge of financing terrorism by sending 800 euros ($900) to aid medical treatment for a Syrian man in Turkey.

During her nine-week trial, prosecutors outlined how Smith — who was a member of the Irish Defence Forces from 2001 to 2011 — travelled to IS territory in 2015 following a conversion to Islam.

In 2012, she went on pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia and expressed a desire on an Islamic Facebook page to live under Sharia law and to die a martyr.

The court was told that she bought a one-way ticket from Dublin to Turkey, crossed the border into Syria and lived in Raqqa, the capital of the self-styled IS caliphate.

Source: Daily Mail