2025-04-10
'Membership is not a state of mind': Lisa Smith claims her only role was as 'housewife' in bid to overturn IS membership conviction
Stage: Appeal
Plea: Not guilty
Outcome: He said that the nub of the prosecution case was that Smith had been keeping house, cooking, cleaning and having babies conceived to be "future warriors". "No one gets jailed for cooking meals, they get jailed for membership," said Mr O'Higgins, adding that the only thing the prosecution could point to was that Smith fed and looked after her husband, which they claimed was "helping the war effort". "The only overt act the prosecution relied on was her role as a housewife," he said. When Smith was sentenced to 15 months in prison in October 2022, Mr Justice Tony Hunt noted that while she is a low risk for re-offending, she was "persistent and determined" in her efforts to travel to Syria and join Isis and has shown no remorse for her actions.