Claimed to have been married four times, including 'Ahmed' and Sajid Aslam[1]
Children
1
Lisa Smith (born c. 1981) is a former Irish soldier who converted to Islam and later travelled to Syria during the Syrian Civil War to join the militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) during the Syrian Civil War. Born in Dundalk, she was a member of the Irish Army before transferring to the Irish Air Corps in 2011, but quit following her conversion to Islam.[2] In 2015, following the breakdown of her marriage, she travelled to Syria to join ISIS. In 2019, she was captured and detained by the US forces in northern Syria.[3] She was sentenced at the Irish Special Criminal Court on 22 July 2022 to 15 months in prison following her conviction on 30 May of membership of Daesh.[4][5]
A 2019 profile reported that Smith had probably travelled to Syria a few months after their 2011 interview with her, and was known to be in Syria in 2015.[6] Irish security officials also told the Irish Independent that they consider Smith to have been no more than a sympathizer.[7][8][9] Once in ISIS territory, she became the second wife of Sajid Aslam, a British jihadist. Aslam was still married to Lorna Moore, another Irish woman, who was in prison in the United Kingdom. Smith says she married Aslam as women were not allowed to live alone in ISIS territory. While there, Smith gave birth to a daughter.
She flew into Dublin on 1 December 2019, having been reportedly repatriated by members of the Army Ranger Wing from the Syrian border, where she was arrested upon arrival.[10][11][12][13][14] She was charged on 4 December 2019 with foreign terrorist offences and membership of a terrorist group, and was released on bail.[15] She denies being a member of the ISIS. Relatives assert that she had never been a member of ISIS and was just a sympathizer.
The charges against Smith include the allegation she was "a member of a terrorist group styling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) also known as Dawlat al-Iraq al-Islamiyya, Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Dawlat al Islamiya fi Iraq wa al Sham, otherwise known as 'Da'esh' and the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham".[16] On 17 April 2020, her trial was adjourned, until 17 July 2020, due to the COVID-19 shutdowns. She was allowed to return to live with her child.[17]
Smith's case was one profiled in a study by the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, as to whether individuals had been recruited to join ISIS solely through online coaching.[18] Smith confirmed to her interviewers she had travelled to Daesh-occupied Syria solely due to the online recruiting of a seemingly reliable online mentor. Smith told interviewers she was concerned over ISIS brutality, which he assured her was just anti-Muslim propaganda.
In May 2021, she won an appeal against a ban on entry to the United Kingdom, ahead of her trial in January 2022.[19]
On 30 May 2022, the Special Criminal Court sitting in Dublin convicted Smith of the offence of membership of an unlawful terrorist group ie ISIS; she was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Smith was found not guilty on a second charge of attempting to finance a terrorist organisation.[20]
In popular culture
Irish folk-punk singer Jinx Lennon, who is also from Dundalk, included a song about Smith on his 2021 album Liferafts For Latchicos entitled "Bertie's Bodyguard".[21]
See also
Shamima Begum — a British-born woman who also went to Syria in 2015 to join the Islamic State and whose intent to return to the UK sparked a public debate about the repatriation of jihadists.
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Gareth Morgan, Tom Brady (9 March 2019). "Who is Lisa Smith? From 'party girl' to Muslim housewife in Syrian camp". Irish Independent. Retrieved 8 April 2019. At the time she was hoping to find a "suitable husband", and was already talking about resigning when her contract expired. It is now known that within a matter of months, she had traveled to Syria. Certainly, by 2015 she is believed to have been in Syria and is understood to have married a man there.
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Schams Elwazer; Peter Taggart; Tara John (1 December 2019). "Irish 'ISIS bride' Lisa Smith in custody in Dublin". CNN. Retrieved 23 May 2020. When asked whether she was prepared to be prosecuted when she returned to Ireland, Smith said: 'Well I know they'd strip me of my passport and stuff and I wouldn't travel and I'd be watched kinda -- but prison? I don't know. I'm already in prison.'
^"ISIS Prisoners & Repatriations in a Time of COVID". The Media Line. 22 May 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2020. Similarly Dr. Speckhard interviewed Irish Lisa Smith who escaped from Camp Ein Issa after the Turkish invasion in Fall 2019 and is now home with her child in Ireland.
^Anne Speckhard; Molly Ellenberg (15 April 2020). "Is Internet Recruitment Enough to Seduce a Vulnerable Individual into Terrorism?". Homeland Security Today. Retrieved 23 May 2020. Lisa travelled twice to Syria, first to help beleaguered Syrians and then again to join ISIS, both times under the tutelage of her online mentor. The second time she recalls questioning Abu Hassan about the ISIS brutality she was also viewing online, 'I asked him. He said, 'No! No! This is just propaganda. They don't want people to make hijrah [travel to live under shariah law]...'
