Canada will return 28-year-old British “Jihadi Jack” from Syria’s detention center – raising fears scores of ISIS sympathizers could soon return to their home countries
Canada will repatriate British-born Isil member “Jihadi Jack” from an Islamic State detention center in northeastern Syria.
Muslim convert Jack Letts, 28, held dual British and Canadian citizenship but declared himself an “enemy of Britain” after fleeing his native Oxfordshire to fight in Syria.
After being arrested by Kurdish authorities in 2017, he asked to be allowed to return to the UK.
The Home Office tore up his British passport in 2019 and handed it over to the Canadian government.
Canada will repatriate British-born Isil member “Jihadi Jack” from an Islamic State detention center in northeastern Syria
Muslim convert Jack Letts, 28, held dual British and Canadian citizenship but declared himself an “enemy of Britain” after fleeing his native Oxfordshire to fight in Syria
Although he was a close ally, the decision to strip Letts of British citizenship sparked anger in Ottawa.
A diplomatic source said the Canadian government “went berserk” over the decision to revoke Letts’ British citizenship because he had “very little to do with Canada”.
The move has raised fears that numerous ISIS sympathizers could soon return to their home countries.
Begum – one of three east London schoolgirls who traveled to Syria to join ISIS – also lost her British passport after she was found nine months pregnant in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.
The Londoner fled the UK in February 2015 and lived under ISIS rule for more than three years, where she married a Dutch jihadist.
Canada said it would take back 23 of its citizens after relatives of the detainees argued preventing them would violate their constitutional rights, The Telegraph reported.
The Canadian federal court’s decision was based on the conditions of the prison and that they were not charged or convicted.
The verdict read: “The conditions of the … men are even worse than those of the women and children whom Canada has just agreed to repatriate.
Sally Lane and Canadian John Letts sent their son £223 while he was in Syria despite learning he had joined ISIS. They were convicted of terrorist financing. (Pictured: Sally Lane and John Letts)
After converting to Islam when he was 16, Letts traveled to the Middle East in 2014, where he married an Iraqi woman
“There is no evidence that any of them have been tried or convicted, let alone tried in a manner recognized or sanctioned by international law.”
After converting to Islam when he was 16, Letts traveled to the Middle East in 2014, where he married an Iraqi woman.
He was captured and detained in 2017 by forces fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) terrorist group.
Letts’ parents were found guilty of financing terrorism at the Old Bailey in 2019.
They were sentenced to 15 months in prison suspended for 12 months.
Sally Lane and Canadian John Letts sent their son £223 while he was in Syria despite learning he had joined ISIS.