Court of Appeal upholds Lisa Smith’s Islamic State membership conviction

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed Lisa Smith’s appeal and upheld her conviction for membership of the terrorist group Islamic State. Delivering judgment for the three-judge court, Judge John Edwards said her voluntary travel to Islamic State-controlled territory could constitute sufficient acts of participation; the court rejected all grounds of appeal.

The Special Criminal Court convicted Smith in 2022 of membership between October 28, 2015, and December 1, 2019. She had pleaded not guilty. She appealed the conviction after the Court of Appeal rejected her challenge to the 15-month sentence in 2023.