Lisa Smith has been found guilty of being a member of ISIS.
The former Irish soldier, who turned 40 during her lengthy trial, was cleared of a separate charge of financing terrorism.
It took an hour and a half to deliver the court’s judgement and in the end, Lisa Smith was acquitted of funding terrorism through an attempted Western Union transfer to an ISIS fighter, but found guilty of being a member of the terror group from the moment she entered Syria in 2015 to the end of 2019.
After converting to Islam and leaving the army, she claimed she was answering a religious call to live under Sharia law in an Islamic State.
But the judges didn’t believe her decision to go there was solely based on a sense of religious duty.
After considering extensive online chats she had with other ISIS members, they concluded that, 'her eyes were wide open,' when she went there and they found nothing to suggest that she ceased adherence thereafter.
Smith was allowed to remain on bail ahead of her sentence hearing in July.
Reporting by Frank Greaney
