Lisa Smith wins appeal against UK entry ban
Updated / Friday, 7 May 2021
14:23
Irish woman Lisa Smith, who is charged with membership of the so-called Islamic State, has won a court case fighting her exclusion from the UK.
In December 2019, an exclusion notice was served to Ms Smith by the British Home Secretary barring her from entering the UK on the grounds of public security.
Ms Smith appealed that notice to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) sitting in London.
The exclusion notice was based on regulations that provide for the exclusion of a national of an European Economic Area (EEA) state who is not also a British citizen.
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Irish soldier who allegedly joined Isil can enter UK because her father was born in Belfast
Lisa Smith, who was captured in Syria in 2019 and faces charges of funding terrorism, wins appeal against a ban on entering Britain
7 May 2021 • 8:00pm
Alleged IS member Lisa Smith leaving Dublin District Court
Credit: Brian Lawless/PA
A former Irish soldier charged with funding terrorism and being a member of Islamic State is to be allowed to enter the UK because her father was born in Belfast.
Lisa Smith, who was captured by US-backed forces in Syria in 2019 under suspicion of joining Isil, won her appeal against a ban on entering Britain.
LMFM By Marc O Driscoll
Dundalk native Lisa Smith has won a legal battle allowing her to enter the United Kingdom.
The former member of the Defence Forces is to go on trial in Dublin next year on charges of being a member of unlawful terrorist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and financing terrorism.
The mother-of-one served in the Irish Army and Air Corps before travelling to Syria in 2015.
Ms. Smith was arrested at Dublin Airport after she was deported from Turkey with her two-year-old daughter in December 2019 but was later released on bail.
The British Government then took the decision to ban her from travelling to Belfast on the grounds of national security.
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An Irish woman accused of being a member of ISIS won her appeal against a ban on entering the United Kingdom.
Lisa Smith’s legal team argued she was entitled to the rights of a dual citizen as a consequence of her father’s birthplace, Belfast in Northern Ireland.
On Friday, a judge upheld her appeal.
Ms Smith, a Muslim convert from Dundalk near the border with Northern Ireland, was served with a Home Office-issued exclusion order in December 2019 on the grounds of public security.
She travelled to Syria in 2015 where she married British ISIS fighter Sajid Aslam who later died in fighting. She escaped the Ain Issa camp in Syria before being deported from Turkey.