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Irish ISIS Bride Arrested on Return to Dublin

Lisa Smith, a 38-year-old former Irish soldier, was arrested shortly after touching down in Dublin with her young daughter.

Lisa Smith, a 38-year-old Irish woman who said she traveled to Syria to become an ISIS bride, was arrested after she landed in Dublin with her 2-year-old daughter on Sunday. Smith, who said her husband had been killed, spoke to CNN while she was in the notorious al-Hol camp in northern Syria last spring along with others who were displaced from ISIS territory. She told CNN at the time that she was “quite famous back home” but wanted to return despite the threat of being sent to prison on terrorism charges. “Well I know they’d strip me of my passport and stuff and I wouldn’t travel and I’d be watched kinda—but prison? I don’t know. I’m already in prison.” The case has contributed to a Europe-wide discussion about what to do with women who married Islamic State fighters who now want to return. Irish Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said in a statement that Smith had been deported from Turkey and that the Irish national police force met her at the airport. “This is a sensitive case and I want to reassure people that all relevant state agencies are closely involved,” Flanagan said in a statement Sunday. Her young daughter has been placed with relatives.