Lisa Smith’s appeal against the sentence she received for ISIS membership is due to be heard today.
In July, the former Irish soldier was jailed for fifteen months after the Special Criminal Court found her guilty of being a member of the terror group.
Before passing sentence over the summer, the judges described Lisa Smith’s nine-week trial as “complex and novel.”
In their judgement, delivered a couple of months before she was jailed, they said they were satisfied she went to Syria in 2015 with “her eyes wide open”.
After converting to Islam and leaving the army a few years beforehand, she claimed she was answering a religious call when she travelled there.
However, the judges rejected any possibility that the time she spent in ISIS controlled territory was all innocent.
Her barrister pleaded with the judges not to jail her but in the end, the court felt it warranted a 15-month custodial sentence.
She intends to appeal the conviction but today’s challenge will focus solely on that sentence, which she and her lawyers believe was too severe.
