A former UK schoolboy now known as ‘Jihadi Jack’ after being suspected of being a member of the Islamic State has begged to be taken to a Canadian prison instead of languishing in a Syrian camp.
Jack Letts, 29, who is a Canadian originally from the UK, has been detained for seven-and-a-half years.
A Muslim convert, Letts declared himself an “enemy of Britain” after fleeing his home in Oxfordshire to fight in Syria in 2014.
Now, he has been found by a television crew in a prison near Raqqa, The Mail reports.
In an interview with CTV News’ W5 programme, the suspected ISIS member said he would have “no problem” being taken back to Canada.
This was even if it meant he had to spend a century imprisoned. He told interviewer Avery Haines: “At least let me rot in a prison in Canada.”
When asked if he had been a member of ISIS, Letts said: “No. A lot of things I said a long time ago because I was scared.
“I can’t say everything because I am still in prison.”
He added that “naivete had played its role” in him deciding to travel to Syria, and that he had been encouraged by watching “videos of people being blown to pieces”. ‘
He said: “I spoke to people who gave me the impression that ISIS wasn’t what people said it was… As soon as I got there, I realised they weren’t what I thought.”
He said: “I spoke to people who gave me the impression that ISIS wasn’t what people said it was… As soon as I got there, I realised they weren’t what I thought.”
Letts’s mother, Sally Lane, has been calling for the Canadian government to repatriate all of its own citizens held in Syrian camps and prisons.
She told Middle East Eye: “I was shocked at Jack’s condition, and how distressed and clearly traumatised he is.”
She added: “I am so angry at the Canadian and British governments that they think it’s okay to completely destroy him as a human being. Jack is going to die if they don’t repatriate him.
“They know this, and still they do nothing.”
