Jihadi Jack is being tortured in Kurdish prison, claims father
THE father of the man nicknamed Jihadi Jack yesterday claimed he was not ‘in denial’ about his son’s clear links to Islamic State.
John Letts also suggested his son was tortured before giving an interview in which he said the Paris terror attacks were a good thing.
And Mr Letts insisted that violent extremist comments on his son’s social media accounts were because he had been hacked. He was speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain after calling former home secretary Sajid Javid a coward for revoking the citizenship of 24- year- old Jack Letts, who has spent the past two years in a Kurdish prison.
Yesterday the captive jihadi – who has dual Canadian nationality – himself told ITV he was not surprised by the Government’s decision, adding: ‘I’ve been here for two and a half years, they haven’t helped me at all.’ He also said he felt more Canadian than British.
John Letts and wife Sally Lane claim their son is in a ‘legal black hole’ over the passport decision – despite his dual nationality. Mr Letts, who was born in Canada, and his wife were convicted in June of funding terrorism after sending their son £223. They were sentenced to 15 months jail, suspended for a year.
Yesterday he told presenters Richard Bacon and Ranvir Singh: ‘I’m not in any sort of denial. I have said from the beginning … if there is any evidence that he has done something wrong he should be arrested, prosecuted and punished. I am not soft on terror.
‘But the British Government is shirking its responsibility.’
Mr Letts, 58, an organic farmer, claimed Jack Letts had OCD and said of Mr Javid: ‘He said it was in the public interest to strip him of his citizenship but it is not in the public interest to know the grounds for that. There is no evidence of Jack being involved in [IS].’ During the couple’s trial it emerged that in July 2015, a former school friend of Jack Letts who had joined the Army, Linus Doubtfire, posted a picture online of himself and his comrades.
Letts responded by posting the message: ‘I would love to perform a martyrdom operation in this scene.’ Mr Letts challenged his son at the time by posting the message: ‘Do you really think that blowing up a bunch of young soldiers is a victory for Allah?’ His son responded: ‘I would happily kill each and every one of Linus’s Unit personally... I honestly want to cut Linus’s head off.’
Despite the exchange, Mr Letts insisted his son’s Facebook account had been hacked ‘the minute he went into Isis territory’. Mr Letts also said his son’s previous TV interview in a Syrian jail had been obtained under ‘ duress and torture’ – a claim rebutted by ITN. He said his son had travelled to Syria for ‘humanitarian reasons’.
Good Morning Britain’s Piers Morgan has previously criticised Jack Letts, saying: ‘If you want to join IS and blow people up and yourself, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.’
Letts is held in a Kurdish jail in northern Syria. In last night’s interview he said he hoped Canada would intervene and get him out of prison – but that he was not ‘optimistic’.
The Home Office said: ‘ Decisions on depriving a dual national of citizenship are based on substantial advice from officials, lawyers and the intelligence agencies.’
‘I want to cut his head off’