Isis suspect Lisa Smith seeking to have charges dropped

Lisa Smith, pictured in 2020. File Picture.

An application will be made tomorrow morning seeking to have charges dropped against former Air Corps member Lisa Smith.

The Louth woman is due to go on trial tomorrow at the Special Criminal Court, charged with membership of an unlawful terrorist group, Islamic State (ISIS), between October 28, 2015 and December 1, 2019.

She is also charged with financing terrorism by sending €800 in assistance, via a Western Union money transfer, to a named man on May 6, 2015.

She denies both charges.

Tomorrow morning, her legal team will mount a last-ditch legal challenge to the charges and seek to have the case against her struck out, under the Criminal Procedure Act 1967.

The application is scheduled to be heard at 11am.

The application will be made on the grounds that there is insufficient evidence to support the charges, according to a source close to the case.

Ms Smith, aged 39, from Dundalk, Co Louth, is currently on bail.

If her legal team’s application fails, the trial is expected to last for up to 12 weeks.

Ms Smith was returned to Ireland in December 2019, after being detained in Syria nine months earlier.

She was granted bail in January 2020, with strict conditions, including having no access to social media or the internet.

In November, the Special Criminal Court ruled that international witnesses in her case would not be forced to come to Ireland to attend the trial because of Covid-19.

The court ruled that the witnesses – two from Australia and another from the US – would instead be able to deliver evidence via video link as it was either “undesirable or not possible” for them to travel here.

Her defence team had objected to the application to allow evidence by video link.