Lisa Smith loses appeal against severity of sentence for Isis membership

Lisa Smith (pictured) was sentenced last year to 15 months in prison for being a member of the Isis terror group. File picture: Niall Carson/PA

Former Defence Forces soldier Lisa Smith has lost an appeal against the severity of her sentence to 15 months in prison for being a member of the Isis terror group.

Delivering the decision in the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice John Edwards dismissed the appeal and said the length of the sentence was legitimately within the discretion of the sentencing.

Delivering the judgment of the three-judge court on Wednesday morning, Mr Justice Edwards said the judges of the Special Criminal Court who tried, convicted and sentenced Smith had shown "scrupulous fairness and appropriate regard to the evidence".

It was the position of the appellant that the court erred in its sentence and that it was “excessive in all circumstances”. Mr Justice Edwards said the court did not agree with complaints from the appellant that the sentence was “excessive”.

“It remains State policy that membership of an unlawful organisation should be a criminal offence. It is the law and we must comply with the law,” he said.

Mr Justice Edwards said Isis “challenges our democratic values, our respect for human rights and the rule of law”. He said members are “subversive of our values and are committed to destroying them”.

He said Isis showed intolerance, brutality and extreme violence in torture, beheadings, drownings and “other outrages”.

He said:
The most egregious crimes known to man.

The court dismissed all grounds of appeal relating to the sentence. Following the judgment Ms Smith's lawyers indicated that they want to appeal her conviction as soon as possible. Her case will be mentioned again on March 24.

With ordinary remission on her 15-month sentence and taking into account one month she spent in custody on her return to Ireland in 2019, the 41-year-old mother-of-one is due for release on May 27.

The 41-year-old ex-Defence Forces member was found guilty in May of Isis membership but was cleared of a separate charge of financing terrorism after a nine-week trial at the Special Criminal Court.

Smith, a convert to Islam, went to Syria in 2015 after terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on Muslims to travel to the country.

She had pleaded not guilty to charges of membership of Isis and providing funds to benefit the group. The maximum sentence for the offence is eight years.