Irish court finds ex-serviceman Lisa Smith guilty of attending Daeshow

Dublin: Three judges of the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday found former soldier Lisa Smith guilty of joining a so-called Daesh group in Syria.
Smith, 40, wept in the courtroom as Judge Tony Hunt read out the panel’s decision, which was delivered after a nine-week trial.
The Muslim convert, who wore a hijab in court, pleaded not guilty to membership of an illegal terrorist group between October 28, 2015 and December 1, 2019.
Judge Hunt said prosecutors had established beyond reasonable doubt that he traveled to Syria “opening his eyes” and pledged allegiance to the group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
He was acquitted of a separate charge of financing terrorism by sending him 800 euros ($900) for the treatment of a Syrian man in Turkey.
Hunt said there was reasonable doubt that they were intended to be used for humanitarian purposes rather than to fund terrorism.
He granted her bail till the sentence hearing on July 11.
During the trial that began in January, prosecutors detailed how Smith, who was a member of the Irish Defense Forces from 2001 to 2011, traveled to Daesh-controlled territory in 2015 after converting to Islam.
In 2012, she went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and expressed her desire to live under Sharia law and be martyred on an Islamic Facebook page.
The court was told that she bought a one-way ticket from Dublin to Turkey, crossing the border into Syria and living in Raqqa, the capital of Daesh’s self-styled caliphate.
At the time, hardline extremists ruled vast areas of Syria and Iraq, before the group’s territorial defeat in the region attracted thousands of foreign fighters to their cause.
After failing to persuade her husband to join her, Smith divorced her in 2016 and married a UK citizen involved in the group’s armed patrol.
As Daesh was defeated on the battlefield by a US-led coalition and towns and cities under it fell, Smith was forced to flee to Raqqa and then to Baghouz, his last remaining stronghold, before returning to Ireland.
She was arrested on December 1, 2019, upon arrival at Dublin airport with her young daughter.
Defense lawyers argued that Smith’s presence in IS territory did not make him a genuine member of the extremist Sunni group.
She has said that it can only be argued “at a stretch” that she provided some sort of support to the group as she had put up a home for her husband.
The three judges sat without a jury in the Special Criminal Court, which adjudicates cases related to terrorism and organized crime crimes.