Trent grad’s son is Jihadi Jack
John Letts, wife plead with Canada to get their son out of hands of Kurdish militia
For two years, his tale has captivated Britain, the press inevitably dubbing him “Jihadi Jack.”
Jack Letts, the son of a graduate of Trent University in Peterborough and a teenage convert to Islam from Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, travelled to Syria in 2014, ended up in the de-facto ISIL capital of Raqqa and was accused of joining the extremist group.
In the meantime, his parents were subjected to a unique criminal prosecution, charged with aiding a terrorist organization for trying to send their son £1,723 they hoped would help him escape.
Now it is possible Letts – who actually came to vehemently oppose the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to his parents – could end up in the hands of Canadian authorities.
Though rarely mentioned in British media, the 20-year-old is a joint U.K.-Canadian citizen, and once even had a Canadian passport.
He has been in the custody of Kurdish militias for five months, and they have said that parents John Letts – a Canadian native who graduated from Trent University in Peterborough – and Sally Lane, a joint British-Canadian citizen, have proposed he be released to officials from this country.
In an exchange of emails with Postmedia Network on Tuesday, the couple said they are sending letters to Canadian MPs to lobby for action by this country, saying their son’s case has been poisoned in the U.K. by inaccurate news reporting and intolerant politicians.
Global Affairs Canada said it was prevented by privacy legislation from saying much about the case, but has its eyes on the situation.
“We are aware of these reports and closely monitoring the situation,” said Brianne Maxwell, a Global Affairs spokeswoman.
In the meantime, there is disagreement about his role in the region, and current condition.
Letts’ parents fear he is being tortured in a Kurdish jail they suspect is a “Guantanamo-style” black site for accused terrorists, while British authorities refuse to intervene.
They have not heard from him since July.
“Jack himself stupidly went to ‘see for himself what was going on,’ ” they wrote on their Free Jack Letts Facebook page. “While he is guilty of stupidity, he is not actually guilty of violence or any other offence .... He worked against IS with friends and colleagues for two years inside Mosul and Raqqa.”
In a statement that was first reported by the BBC, though, officials in the self-declared Kurdish region of northern Syria said he had been charged with being a member of ISIL, and strongly refuted any suggestion that he is being mistreated. Meanwhile, Letts is being investigated by “local and global anti-terror units,” they said.
“Jack Letts is a dual BritishCanadian national who travelled to areas under the Islamic State (ISIS) control in Iraq and Syria in 2014,” noted Sinam Mohamad, European representative of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. “Jack Letts has been captured ... in war zone area as a prisoner of war.”
His parents are trying to manipulate “facts and reality,” the statement alleged.
John Letts actually met his wife in Canada and eventually moved with her to England, working for a time at Oxford University. He is an organic farmer known for his heritage flour. Sally is a book editor.
Their slide toward the war on terror began with Letts’ conversion to Islam at age 16, as he dropped out of school after being diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Aided by a photographic memory, he managed to become almost fluent in Arabic within six months, his parents say.
He set off for the Middle East in 2014, first visiting Jordan, then heading to Kuwait. Lane says she took a call from him that September, saying “I’m in Syria,” before the line cut off.
He also appears to have spent time in Iraq, but even British police have admitted in writing there is no evidence he joined ISIL or committed terrorist acts, his parents say.
“He is a religious and idealistic young man who was outraged that nothing was being done to counter Assad’s repression in Syria, and wanted to see first hand ‘what was going on,’ help Syrians if he could … and learn more about Islam.”
The jihadi nickname, they note bitterly, was coined by a British journalist who also falsely reported that Letts told his mother he had joined ISIL.
But it all was enough that in 2016 the parents were arrested for aiding a terrorist group — trying to send money that was supposed to pay a smuggler to get their son out of ISIL territory — and actually held in jail for five days before getting bail. John Letts called that experience “the dark night of my soul.” The couple are still awaiting trial.
As for Jack Letts’ life in Raqqa, they say he was in hiding and had been imprisoned on several occasions for speaking out against ISIL, having quickly become disenchanted with the group.
He finally escaped on his own this May, only to be captured by the Kurdish YPG militia.
As well as announcing that Letts had been charged, the Kurdish authorities insisted he is being treated well and according to human rights requirements. They released what they described as a letter from Letts’ parents, saying the couple accepted the Kurds had a right to question suspected ISIL sympathizers.
“We also accept that Jack will need to be transferred into Canadian custody for questioning and may be arrested when he arrives in Canada,” the note said. “If he has committed any crimes, we believe he should face justice and explain his actions.”
Oliver Tickell, a family friend and journalist, wrote recently that Canadian diplomats initially had a “can-do attitude” but later backed off. They still “provide occasional reports, for example to confirm that they believe him to be alive.”