WE ‘WON’T BE ABLE TO PROSECUTE ISIS BRIDE’
Justice Minister says State will ‘show compassion’
THERE could be a ‘real difficulty’ in prosecuting Irish Isis bride Lisa Smith if she returns to Ireland, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has warned. But yesterday Mr Flanagan warned that, although legislation exists to try Ms Smith for any potential crimes committed in Syria, a lack of evidence will make it difficult to secure a conviction.
If she wishes to return to Ireland, the Government has said it would show ‘compassion’ to Ms Smith, who has a two-year-old son, given that there is a child involved.
Mr Flanagan said he accepted that
Irish citizens do not go to areas held by Isis ‘for their holidays’.
‘It’s not an offence to go to another country. But it is an offence to engage in the type of activities that some people are engaged in, in that part of the world,’ he said.
‘Yes, we do have strong and robust legislation in terms of there being a criminal offence of being involved with Isis groups,’ Minister Flanagan added when asked if the so-called Isis bride could face charges if returned to Dublin.
He is believed to be referring to the concept of ‘universal jurisdiction’, recognised by Ireland – in which a person who has returned here could be charged under international law with war crimes or aiding genocide or a war of aggression – although there is no evidence Ms Smith did anything except travel to an Isis stronghold in Syria with her husband, a member of the extremist terror group.
Ms Smith, 37, a former soldier, worked on the Government jet under then taoiseach Bertie Ahern and president Mary McAleese, before travelling to Syria in 2015.
The Government has signalled that she will be allowed to return home, but she has not yet requested consular assistance.
However, if she is returned here, Mr Flanagan told RTÉ’s The Week In Politics that a lack of evidence could mean courts will not be able
‘We won’t leave them stateless’
to reach the burden of proof necessary for a conviction.
‘Yes, we have the law, we have the offences, we have our statutes. But what we need is the evidence in order to ensure a conviction and that’s where a real difficulty arises,’ he explained.
‘This is not just an Irish issue. But it is something that we’re grappling with at EU level – how we deal with people who return from areas of conflict and how we can ultimately establish that criminal offences have been committed in our courts. Our courts are such that everybody is innocent until proven guilty and the burden of proof is that that guilt must be shown beyond reasonable doubt. That, in these circumstances, is very challenging.’
Ms Smith’s case came to light on Friday, following the broadcast of an ITV television interview with a so-called ‘British’ Isis bride – who had a distinct Irish accent. American authorities have confirmed that an Irish woman has been detained for questioning in Syria.
Ms Smith, who is from Dundalk, Co. Louth, reportedly became radicalised through Facebook, moving first to Tunisia, before making the journey to Syria.
She is a mother to a two-yearold boy, and Minister Flanagan said yesterday the Government wanted to show ‘compassion’.
He said: ‘We need to work with our international colleagues to ensure that we can ascertain the facts. If there are children involved then of course we need to ensure there is compassion there.’
Ireland has laws to prosecute people in Ireland for war crimes abroad.
Assistant legal adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs Nuala Ní Mhuircheartaigh told the UN General Assembly in 2011 that exercise of universal jurisdiction is possible in only the most limited circumstances, ‘for example in cases of torture or grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions’. She said that prosecutions are not controlled by government. ‘In general, they are a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions,’ she said.
A Bill introduced by Independent TD Mick Wallace in 2015 to expand the concept of universal jurisdiction was defeated in the Dáil. This Bill would have made it easier to take cases against people in Ireland for ‘crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and torture’ and would have carefully defined such crimes.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said at the weekend that he would not prevent Ms Smith from returning to Irish soil. ‘I wouldn’t use the term “welcome” – but we’re not going to strip her and her child of their citizenship and leave them stateless,’ he said.
It echoed similar comments he made in Egypt two weeks ago, when he said: ‘I think it’s bad practice to revoke somebody’s citizenship and render them stateless and leave them to be somebody’s else’s problem.’
The comments were an apparent swipe at the UK’s handling of its own Isis bride case – Shamima Begum, 19, who had her citizenship revoked by British home secretary Sajid Javid. International condemnation has been heaped on the UK for its response to the incident after Ms Begum’s newborn child died in a Syrian refugee camp in recent days – her third child to die. Business Minister Heather Humphreys yesterday backed Mr Varadkar’s response, telling reporters: ‘We don’t want to see somebody stateless.’