A former Irish soldier has been found guilty of being a member of so-called Islamic State.

Lisa Smith, from Dundalk in Co Louth, was convicted by a judge at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

Smith wiped away tears from her eyes as the verdict was read out by Mr Justice Tony Hunt.

The 40-year-old was found not guilty of a second charge of attempting to finance the terrorist organisation.

The judge told the court it could not be ruled beyond reasonable doubt that the intention of Smith to send €800 to a so-called Islamic State member was either for charitable or humanitarian reasons.

He said there was “sufficient ambiguity” as to the reasonable doubt and acquitted Smith of the charge.

She left the Irish military after she converted to Islam in 2011 and later travelled to IS-controlled territory in Syria.

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There, after a previous marriage ended, she married Sajid Aslam, a UK national who the court was told “had done a snipers course on her advice”.

Smith had a daughter, born in June 2017, before she returned to Ireland in December 2019 following the collapse of Islamic State’s territory.

She was arrested at Dublin Airport and charged with terror offences.

The trial heard Smith had “endeavoured to access IS-controlled territory and sought out the means by which this could be done”.

Prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane SC told the court Smith “subscribed to the reciprocity of allegiance and protection, and in that sense, she enveloped herself in the standard or black flag of Islamic State”.

It was the prosecution’s case that to “make hijra” (emigrate) in this specific context is “a central act of allegiance to this proto-state”, and an “act without which the terrorist group cannot survive”.

“It is the lifeblood of the Islamic State,” Mr Gillane said.

Smith will be sentenced on 11 July.

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