Jihadi Jack’s parents go on hunger strike
THE parents of ‘Jihadi Jack’ have gone on hunger strike in protest against the Government’s failure to help their son.
Sally Lane and John Letts, whose son converted to Islam and travelled to Syria, started their weeklong fast on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral at 1pm on Thursday.
They said the protest was against the Government’s ‘inaction’ over the ‘desperate plight’ of their son.
The 21-year-old, who denies joining Islamic State, has previously said he wanted to come home and ‘explain some things’ to his family.
In June he was said to have fled Raqqa. His parents claim he has ‘disappeared’ in Kurdish-run northern Syria and has been imprisoned at a Guantanamo-style ‘black site’ in Rojava, with no contact from the outside world since July 8.
Jack, from Oxford, was suspected of being the first white Briton to join IS. Letts, 56, and Lane, 54, are awaiting trial accused of funding terrorism by sending cash to him – charges they deny. Lane said her son was dubbed a jihadi on an ‘assumption that everyone who goes to Syria must be a terrorist’.
She added: ‘He is being held under false suspicion … and has no opportunity to defend himself.’
Letts said: ‘The British government has refused to engage with the Kurdish authorities in trying to secure Jack’s release … [It] has a duty to protect its citizens.’
A Facebook page, set up by the parents says Jack went to Syria for ‘religious and humanitarian reasons’ and ‘was never a member of IS’.