'Vulnerable' Lisa Smith has already served a sentence and should not be jailed, court told

Michael O'Higgins SC, barrister for Lisa Smith, said she has already served a custodial sentence in Syria

Lisa Smith (pictured) has lived with a 13-hour daily curfew as part of her bail conditions since 2019, her barrister told the court on Monday. Photo: Collins Courts

Lawyers for former soldier Lisa Smith, who travelled to Syria to join Isis in 2014, have asked that before imposing sentence, the Special Criminal Court should consider her young child and the "appalling" conditions they suffered while in Syria.

Michael O'Higgins SC, for Smith, asked the court not to send his client to prison. Counsel referred to four psychological reports that found her to be "damaged" and "vulnerable" and he said she became attracted to the Islamic State due to her "very limited resources and significant burdens that other people from her peer group would not have had".

He said that Ms Smith already served a custodial sentence in Syria when she was held in the Al-Hawl and Ain Issa camps while she waited to be sent home to Ireland. He referred to evidence that members of Isis staying in those camps would impose cruel punishments including murder on anyone they deemed to have committed an offence. 

Mr O'Higgins said: "The conditions in that camp were absolutely appalling and must have been extremely frightening for anybody, particularly a mother with a small child." He also asked the court to consider that Ms Smith has lived with a 13-hour daily curfew as part of her bail conditions since 2019.

Combining the time she spent in Syrian camps and under curfew, counsel said she has already served about four years.

The maximum sentence for the offence of membership of a terrorist organisation is eight years. Mr O'Higgins said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the terrorist leader of Isis, would therefore serve only eight years on conviction for the same offence. 

There is, he said, "maximum daylight" between al-Baghdadi and Ms Smith whose offending the court has already accepted is at the lower end of the scale. There is no suggestion that Ms Smith engaged in military operations while in Syria and she has stated that she spent most of her time at home cooking and cleaning for her abusive husband.

Mr O'Higgins asked the court to consider imposing a fully suspended sentence.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding at the three-judge, non-jury court, adjourned sentencing until July 22. He allowed Ms Smith to remain on bail but said "no false comfort" should be taken from that. He said the court has a lot to consider and the case is a "novel" one.

Smith (40) from Dundalk, Co. Louth, had pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful terrorist group, Islamic State, between October 28th, 2015 and December 1st, 2019. The mother-of-one was convicted of Isis membership following a trial at the three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court earlier this year. 

The court found Smith not guilty of a second charge of funding terrorism, saying that it is reasonably possible that she sent €800 to Isis fighter and propagandist, John Georgelas, in May 2015 for his personal use or for "humanitarian reasons", after he had been injured during fighting in Syria.