

CTVNews.ca Staff





John Letts is asking the federal government to help free his British-Canadian son Jack Letts, an accused ISIS fighter who is being held by Kurdish forces in Syria.

In an interview with CTV’s Power Play, Letts said he’d be “the first to condemn him” if his son committed any criminal acts.

Jack Letts crossed into ISIS-held territory in Syria back in 2014 and was subsequently nicknamed “Jihadi Jack” by British media. He’s been imprisoned without charge for 18 months.

His father says his son is innocent and has written to members of Parliament and Global Affairs Canada in a bid to secure his son’s release.

Letts said his son had originally travelled to Kuwait to study Arabic and Islamic studies and converted to Islam. But Jack Letts eventually became bothered by the “horrors” of the Syrian civil war he’d seen playing out on TV and eventually travelled there.

“He was adamantly reading the Koran and saying it was the duty of every Muslim to help other Muslims, if they can,” Letts explained. Letts stressed his son had left Oxford, U.K., before ISIS had declared its caliphate so it hadn’t formed a lot of its borders.

But once Letts was in Syria, he learned that anyone looking to escape “couldn’t get out … because ISIS would chop your head off.” His father pointed to the incidents where those caught smuggling people out of ISIS territory were “crucified in the town square.”

Two weeks ago, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer blasted the Trudeau government over reports that consular officials initiated contact with Jack Letts -- whom Scheer alleged was a "known jihadi fighter" -- about coming to Canada.

But Letts asserts Scheer was simply repeating false “stuff he picked up from the media.” Letts said he even offered to share all the information he had with Scheer.

According to Letts, Global Affairs Canada spoke to his son a year ago and is aware of the “terrible conditions” in the Kurdish prison camps, but said it’s too dangerous to move him.

On Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said people who leave Canada and enter into active war zones do so at their own peril.

“When you leave the comfortable confines of Canadian democracy and travel halfway around the world to go into a war zone and associate yourself with terrorists then you need to bear the consequences of that behaviour,” he said.

Goodale added Canada was not legally responsible to repatriate Letts or any Canadian in a similar situation.

“No offer of repatriation has been made and there is certainly no deal with the Kurds,” he said. “We need to be very sure we are not putting our diplomatic and consul officials at any risk.”

These comments were in line with what he had said last Thursday, when he also stressed Canadian security and intelligence forces were working in collaboration with their international counterparts to investigate all Canadians who travelled to Syria, "with the absolute determination to lay charges and to prosecute in every case."</s>Image caption Jack Letts, from Oxford, travelled to Syria in 2014

The father of a British-Canadian national detained in Kurdish-held northern Syria is asking Canadian officials to help secure his release.

John Letts is also pleading for their assistance in the repatriation of other Canadians being held in the region.

His son, Jack Letts, 23, dubbed "Jihadi Jack", travelled to Syria in 2014.

He was later captured by the Kurdish-led YPG - the group fighting against the Islamic State - when he left IS territory.

Mr Letts said his son has been detained for the past 18 months and that his health is failing.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The parents of Jack Letts, John Letts and Sally Lane, have asked Canada and the UK to help repatriate their son

"I need your help to save my son's life," he told journalists in Ottawa, where he was meeting officials on Tuesday to discuss his son's case and those of other detained Canadians.

John Letts and his wife are facing charges of funding terrorism after sending their son money two years ago, which they say was to fund their son's escape from Syria.

They have pleaded not guilty.

Mr Letts said they have not been able to speak openly about their son's case in the UK due to contempt of court rules.

"In fact there's a very good chance I'll be sent to prison again when I fly back tomorrow," he said.

"Unfortunately I don't have any choice but to speak out because I love my son and think he's innocent."

The couple, who along with their son have dual citizenship, have made repeated attempts to get the British and Canadian governments to intervene and bring their son home.

Mr Letts said Canadian officials had been initially helpful when his son was first captured, but have since said it would be too dangerous to have him removed.

He said his son was "naive and very religious" when he travelled to Syria at the age of 18 and denies he was there to fight with IS.

Jack Letts converted to Islam while at Cherwell comprehensive school in Oxford, England.

It is unclear how much evidence exists about the true nature of his activities in Syria.

At the Ottawa press conference, Mr Letts appeared alongside Families Against Violent Extremism (Fave), which said there are currently nine Canadian adults and several children, including a number under the age of six, being held in Kurdish prison camps in Syria.

Fave said it is concerned that the families are housed in tents and lack adequate clothing to handle the approaching winter.

"These people need to be brought home to Canada and they need to be brought home now," said Fave director Alexandra Bain.

Ms Bain said representatives from the UK-based legal Reprieve would travel to northern Syria to help facilitate their return if Canada agrees to supply the detainees with travel documents.

Canada says that there is no safe way to get these Canadians out of the region. There are also concerns they would be detained by authorities and face charges in neighbouring countries if they did manage to leave Syria.

In a statement, Canada's Foreign Affairs department told the BBC that its ability to provide consular assistance is "extremely limited" but that it is engaged to the extent possible in the cases raised by Fave.

"Canadian diplomats have established a communications channel with local Kurdish authorities in order to verify the whereabouts and well-being of Canadian citizens," it said.

There has been significant debate in both Britain and Canada over what should happen to returning IS fighters who are still in Syria.</s>OTTAWA — Canadian infants and children being held in Syria deserve the federal government’s help to get them out before winter comes, says a group representing them here.

The Canadians detained by Kurdish authorities in Syrian territory include nine families and more than 10 children, including some who were taken to Syria at young ages and others who were born there, said Alexandra Bain, the director of Families Against Violent Extremism.

Bain said the children are facing the outbreak of disease and a harsh winter and the Canadian government has a duty to protect its citizens. She said they live on a diet of rice and pasta and there are no diapers or milk for the infants.

Bain said her group and another volunteer organization want to foot the cost of getting these Canadians out of a war zone and are willing to do the necessary work on the ground, but that the government has to help them.

All those imprisoned in Syria should be vetted by Canadian authorities and it is possible some should face charges for their activities abroad, she added.

“They were all captured and detained in a war zone, and they must be thoroughly investigated by Canada’s security services and some will undoubtedly face justice,” said Bain.

Global News has reported that at least 13 Canadians — three alleged terrorists, their wives and children — are currently being detained in Syria.

The group includes Jack Letts, the British-raised son of a Canadian father and British mother, who has been dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by the U.K. media. His father, John, joined Bains on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, calling for the release of the Canadians. He branded as “fake news” the reports of his son’s being a terrorist, and laid the blame at the foot of a British journalist, whose use of the moniker stuck.

John Letts told the Hill press conference that he thinks his son is innocent and that he needs treatment for various illnesses contracted while in prison. He says his son was never involved in the violence perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or Daesh.

“I want everyone here to know what we know: that Jack worked with others in the religious opposition to ISIS in Raqqa (the city the Islamic State claimed as its capital), that he condemned ISIS on social media, and that he wants to spend the rest of his life living peacefully and bearing witness against ISIS,” Letts said.

In a previous letter to Canadian MPs, Letts wrote that his son is a “naive young person who went to Syria hoping to help create a peaceful, utopian Muslim state” and who wound up trapped when Islamic terrorists took control of exit points.

Letts says that by saying that publicly he is violating British court orders that could get him thrown in jail when he returns to the country.

He and his wife, Sally Lane, were charged by British police in 2016 with funding terrorism after they tried to send their son money. In his letter, Letts wrote that the money was to pay “people smugglers,” who they believed had the only way to get their son out of Syria.

Letts said in his letter that his son’s Kurdish jailers have stated publicly that they’re willing to hand his son over to Canadian authorities. He also maintains Global Affairs Canada told the family for months that it was working to get their son released but that the department recently decided it’s too dangerous.

“It obviously has something to do with the upcoming election,” Letts said Tuesday. “We have fairly good evidence of the British having cracked the whip and said you have to toe the line — no one breaks the line of letting people back — and I think Canada is responding to that.”

Earlier this month, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer criticized the Trudeau government over reports that consular officials initiated contact with Letts, whom Scheer described as a “known jihadi fighter.”</s>The father of a British-Canadian dual national held by Kurds in Syria pleaded Tuesday for Ottawa's help to rescue him and at least 18 other Canadians, amid concerns that some of them pose a security risk.

Jack Letts, 23, has been held in Syria for 18 months, his father John told reporters in Ottawa.

"I need your help to save my son's life," said Letts, who appeared at a press conference with Alexandra Bain, director of Families Against Violent Extremism.

They said nine Canadians, including the younger Letts, as well as at least 10 of their children -- some taken to Syria, some born in the war zone -- are currently being held by Kurdish authorities on Syrian soil.

Bain said they face a cold winter ahead, are given little to eat, are not provided an education and tuberculosis has started to spread in the camps.

"These people need to be brought home to Canada and they need to be brought home now," Bain said.

The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said it will not risk sending officials to Syria to negotiate for their release, citing security concerns.

Ottawa has also raised concerns about the collection of evidence in conflict zones to prosecute returnees under Canadian terrorism laws.

"We are aware of Canadian citizens being detained in Syria," foreign ministry spokesman Stefano Maron told AFP.

"Given the security situation on the ground, the government of Canada's ability to provide consular assistance in any part of Syria is extremely limited," he said.

"Canada is engaged in these cases and is providing assistance, to the limited extent possible," including verifying their "whereabouts and well-being," Maron added.

The families of detainees and their supporters were to meet later Tuesday with senior Canadian foreign ministry officials to pitch their proposal for a brokered return.

Letts and Bain said the human rights organization Reprieve would travel to camps in northern Syria to help facilitate their return, but only if Canada agrees to supply the returnees with travel documents.

To alleviate public concerns about repatriating Canadians with possible terror links, Bain said returnees would agree to "voluntary security arrangements," without elaborating on the terms.

Reprieve has previously helped repatriate an American from Syria under similar circumstances, Bain noted.

The reason for Letts' presence in Syria is somewhat unclear.

British media have suggested he is fighting for extremist groups, but his father said he was "not a violent jihadist" though he might have been "naive and wrong" to go to Syria.

Canadian officials had been trying to secure Letts' return home but suddenly halted their efforts in May, the father said.

"They just said there's nothing we can do because it's too dangerous," he told reporters, holding back tears.

The father suggested pressure on Canada from Britain, which has refused to take Jack back, or the upcoming Canadian election in 2019 may have factored into the decision.</s>The father of Jack Letts, a young British-Canadian man dubbed "Jihadi Jack" by British media, said information exists that proves his son was not a supporter of the Islamic State — but that information is sealed as part of a court case against himself and his wife.

The extraordinary claim was made by John Letts during a news conference on Parliament Hill Tuesday, prior to a meeting between Letts and senior officials at Global Affairs Canada.

"For three years we have not been allowed to talk about our case, or counter lies that have been printed about Jack, because of contempt of court rules," Letts said, referring to the charges of funding terrorism filed by British authorities against himself and his wife, Sally Lane.

"I want everyone here to know what we know — that Jack worked with others in the religious opposition to ISIS in Raqqa. He condemned ISIS on social media and he wants to spend the rest of his life living peacefully and bearing witness against ISIS."

Letts and his wife were charged in early 2016 with sending money overseas, or arranging to do so, when there was reason to believe it could be used terrorism. Their case is still pending.

They maintain their innocence and say they were sending their son cash to get him out of ISIS-controlled territory in Syria, where he had gone as part of a religious quest in 2014.

Letts said Tuesday he's expecting British authorities to arrest him upon his return to the U.K. on Wednesday because he's violated the publication ban surrounding details of the case.

"Unfortunately, I do not have any other choice than to speak out because I love my son and I think he's innocent," Letts said.

The fate of Jack Letts and eight other Canadians who left the country to join ISIS has been the subject of furious debate in Parliament.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has attacked the Liberal government for helping Letts and considering his appeal to come to this country.

"British terrorist Jihadi Jack, a U.K. citizen, who may or may not have ever set foot in Canada, reportedly received help from a government representative," the Conservative leader said, leading off question period on Oct. 16. "The Liberals proactively reached out to him to help him come to Canada. Why?"

On Tuesday, Letts said he and his wife have been subjected to a "media witch hunt" and their son is guilty only of being a devout Muslim and going to Syria in 2014 to help other Muslims.

"He felt he had a religious duty to help others who were suffering," said John Letts.

The younger Letts is a Muslim convert who grew up in Oxford. His father is Canadian. His mother is a landed immigrant in this country and all of their children hold dual citizenship.

The image painted of Jack by his father, in the news conference and in multiple media interviews this week, stands in stark contrast to the one presented in the House of Commons.

In an open letter to MPs recently, Letts accused Scheer of spreading "lies" about his son, but chose not to renew the attack directly on the opposition leader on Tuesday.

He said he would be the first to condemn Jack if there was proof his son was involved with ISIS, and that those who did fight for ISIS should be brought to justice.

His case, Letts said, is being conflated with others, such as Canadian ISIS fighter Muhammad Ali, who went by the name Abu Turaab Al-Kanadi.

Ali told Global News earlier this month he wants to return home and is one of at least three Canadians who allegedly travelled to Syria to join ISIS and are now imprisoned by the Kurds.

The Liberal government has said it cannot help with the repatriation because it has no consular support nearby, the region is unstable and officials cannot safely travel there.

Alexandra Bain, director of Families Against Violent Extremism, said her organization helped U.S. officials bring an American woman and her four children home from Kurdish-held territory in Syria in August.

She said her organization and another charity, Reprieve, have offered to do the same thing for the Canadian detainees, but they have been turned down.

Clive Stafford-Smith, the lawyer representing Letts and the founder of Reprieve, is prepared to make the journey to northern Syria and only asks that the Canadian government issue emergency passports that would allow the detainees back into the country.

Bain said she believes the Liberal government is "afraid and they're not sure how to do (it), and we would really like to help because we have done it already."

Members of the other detainees' families did not appear at Tuesday's news conference "because they greatly fear the negative repercussions of appearing in public," Bain said.

John Letts apparently had no such fear.

"Other countries, including the USA, have brought their citizens home, so why can't Canada?" he said, before addressing the reporters in the room directly.

"I need your help to save my son's life."</s>OTTAWA — Canada’s foreign ministry says it has opened a communication channel with the Kurdish jailers of Canadian children and their families in Syria, but hasn’t been able to secure their release because of the volatile security situation.

The response Tuesday from Global Affairs Canada comes after a Toronto-based organization called on the government to come to the aid of Canadian infants and children being held in Syria.

The Canadians detained by Kurdish authorities in Syrian territory include nine families and more than 10 children, including some who were taken to Syria at young ages and others who were born there, said Alexandra Bain, the director of Families Against Violent Extremism.

Bain said the children are facing the outbreak of disease and a harsh winter and the Canadian government has a duty to protect its citizens. She said they live on a diet of rice and pasta and there are no diapers or milk for the infants.

Bain said her group and another British-based volunteer organization want to foot the cost of getting the Canadians out of a war zone and are willing to do the necessary work on the ground, but that the government has to help them.

The group includes Jack Letts, the British-raised son of a Canadian father and British mother, who has been dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by the U.K. media. His father, John, joined Bains on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, calling for the release of the Canadians. He branded as “fake news” the reports of his son’s being a terrorist, and laid the blame at the foot of a British journalist, whose use of the moniker stuck.

Bain and Letts were in Ottawa and met with senior consular officials at Global Affairs to plead their case.

“Canadian diplomats have established a communications channel with local Kurdish authorities in order to verify the whereabouts and well-being of Canadian citizens,” said Stefano Maron, a department spokesman.

“The government of Canada is engaged in these cases and is providing assistance, to the limited extent possible.”

A Canadian government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the situation, said even if it were possible for them to leave Syria, the detainees “would most likely be detained by authorities and face serious charges in neighbouring countries.”

John Letts told the Hill press conference that he thinks his son, Jack, is innocent and that he needs treatment for various illnesses contracted while in prison. He says his son was never involved in the violence perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or Daesh.

“I want everyone here to know what we know: that Jack worked with others in the religious opposition to ISIS in Raqqa (the city the Islamic State claimed as its capital), that he condemned ISIS on social media, and that he wants to spend the rest of his life living peacefully and bearing witness against ISIS,” Letts said.

Letts says that by saying that publicly he is violating British court orders that could get him thrown in jail when he returns to the country.

He and his wife, Sally Lane, were charged by British police in 2016 with funding terrorism after they tried to send their son money to get their son out of Syria.

Letts said previously that his son’s Kurdish jailers are willing to hand his son over to Canadian authorities. He also maintains Global Affairs Canada told the family for months that it was working to get their son released but that the department recently decided it’s too dangerous.

“It obviously has something to do with the upcoming election,” Letts said Tuesday. “We have fairly good evidence of the British having cracked the whip and said you have to toe the line — no one breaks the line of letting people back — and I think Canada is responding to that.”

Earlier this month, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer criticized the Trudeau government over reports that consular officials initiated contact with Letts, whom Scheer described as a “known jihadi fighter.”

Bain said all those imprisoned in Syria should be vetted by Canadian authorities and it is possible some should face charges for their activities abroad.

“They were all captured and detained in a war zone, and they must be thoroughly investigated by Canada’s security services and some will undoubtedly face justice.”</s>For the first several months, the messages suggested Canada was willing, even eager, to get Jack Letts out of a Kurdish prison in northern Syria.

Global Affairs Canada discussed possible routes for moving the former resident out of ISIL-controlled Raqqa after his release. They asked the joint British-Canadian citizen’s jailers to provide him medical help, and said they were “extremely concerned” by reports he had been tortured.

“We are working diligently on your son’s file,” consular officials insisted to Letts’ U.K.-based parents.

Then earlier this year, the diplomats’ tone changed abruptly, the same officials saying their hands were tied by a lack of Canadian presence in Syria. Their ability to help the Muslim convert dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by British media was “extremely limited,” they now said.

The change in tone amid a 16-month exchange of emails — copies of which were obtained by the National Post — has left parents John Letts and Sally Lane deeply frustrated — and wondering if outside powers have gotten to the Canadian government.
• Parents of alleged ISIL member ‘Jihadi Jack’ plead with Canadian MPs to help free him from Syria
• Britain’s ‘Jihadi Jack’ could end up in Canadian hands after months in the custody of Kurdish militias

Clive Stafford Smith, a prominent human-rights lawyer helping the family, said a senior Canadian political source told him the UK government had asked Ottawa “to do nothing (about Letts) without British consent.”

“As a British citizen myself, I have to apologize to the Canadian people for that kind of paternalism, and encourage you not to bow to British pressure,” Stafford Smith said Monday by email.

Global Affairs spokesman Stefano Maron did not respond to a question about possible U.K. intervention. But he said the security situation on the ground in Syria — even the relatively peaceful Kurdish-controlled enclave where Letts and others Canadians are being held — makes it difficult to provide them much assistance.

Diplomats have, however, set up a “communications channel” with Kurdish authorities to verify “the whereabouts and well-being of Canadian citizens,” he said.

The fate of Canadians linked to ISIL is also a politically volatile issue, with the Liberals accused of being too hesitant to repatriate and charge ex-fighters.

The opposition Conservatives say the government should, in fact, do nothing more on the Letts case, unless it collects enough evidence to prosecute him.

“We don’t want Jack Letts in Canada,” MP Pierre Paul-Hus, the Tories’ public safety critic, said Monday. “And I think a majority of Canadians feel the same way.”

Jack Letts, who grew up in Oxford but is a joint citizen like the rest of his family, travelled to the Middle East in 2014 after converting to Islam. He lived in ISIL-controlled Iraq, married a woman there, then ended up in Raqqa, Syria, the de-facto capital of the short-lived ISIL caliphate.

His parents say he never joined the Islamic State, came to vehemently oppose it, and eventually escaped Raqqa, only to be captured by the Kurdish forces who worked with a U.S.-led military coalition to defeat ISIL.

A British newspaper had called him Jihadi Jack, and the name stuck, evoking images of other Western ISIL members videotaped taking part in atrocities. There appears to be no evidence that Letts himself committed any violent acts. But he and his parents have said he would be willing to face prosecution and even prison in Canada if a case against him emerged.

Meanwhile, his organic-farmer father and book-editor mother now face charges themselves of attempting to fund terrorism, after trying to send their son the equivalent of $2,900 he said he needed to escape Raqqa.

In his limited communication with the outside world, Letts has indicated he is in deteriorating physical and mental health, kept in harsh, crowded conditions.

With the British government refusing to help, the parents turned to Canada last year. John Letts grew up near Chatham, Ont., and Sally Lane’s family moved to Ontario when she was a child, but the couple moved back to England after meeting here.

Global Affairs officials did note from the start that working in the semi-autonomous Kurdish area of Rojava would be difficult. But they promised to do their best to at least get Letts to a third country, his prison being almost on the border with Turkey, a NATO member.

“Once in Turkey and if he decides to go to Canada, we will try to assist him with this,” Andrew Carroll, a consular case management officer, emailed in July 2017.

Government officials sounded even more co-operative in phone calls, making it clear “that we were working to the same goal,” John Letts said in an interview.

But the tide had turned by the time he and Stafford Smith — one of the first lawyers certified to represent prisoners at the U.S. government’s Guantanamo Bay facility — met face-to-face with Global Affairs employees in Ottawa this April.

“I have to say that I have never been to a more dispiriting meeting in the 35 years I have done this work,” Stafford Smith said in a letter afterward to one of the GAC officials.

The parents say the standard Canadian response now — “there have been no Canadian officials in Syria since 2012. Our ability to provide consular assistance in Syria is extremely limited” — is strikingly similar to what British authorities have long told them.

Letts believes the British are worried about the impact on the parents’ terrorism-funding case if Letts gets out and makes it clear he’s no terrorist.

“I think it would scupper our trial,” said the father. “It’s better to keep Jack in there, completely unable to speak to anyone.”</s>John Letts, father of Jack Letts, also known as Jihadi Jack, along with Families Against Violent Extremism are in Ottawa to push for plans to secure repatriation for Canadian citizens held in Syria.

John Letts, father of Jack Letts, also known as Jihadi Jack, along with Families Against Violent Extremism are in Ottawa to push for plans to secure repatriation for Canadian citizens held in Syria. 0:00</s>Vilified and imprisoned in Britain for trying to help his son escape captivity in Syria, a Chatham-born man and his wife are facing financial ruin and possibly years in prison as they continue to try to rescue their son, dubbed Jihadi Jack by the British media.

John Letts, who grew up in Pain Court, has come back to his homeland and is heading to the nation’s capital in the hopes of convincing Canadian officials to help Jack, who is a dual British/Canadian citizen.

Letts met with Postmedia Network to share the ordeal his family has endured for more than three years, which has included Jack spending several months in a Kurd prison, surrounded by ISIS supporters, who he has opposed.

Letts said he and his wife both ended up spending a week in prison after a British magistrate decided they were a threat to society, because they sent money to someone to try to smuggle their son out of Syria.

Jack’s interest in Islam goes back to him studying world religions around age 15 while attending school in Oxford, England where the family lives.

Around the same time, Letts said Jack developed obsessive compulsive disorder, accompanied by physical tics. While some of his friends drifted away, he said, Jack’s Muslim friends “didn’t seem to care.”

While Letts, who was raised Catholic, admitted he wasn’t crazy about Jack’s growing interest in Islam, he said, “it made him feel better. It gave him some comfort with his OCD.”

Soon, Jack became a practising Muslim and even learned to read, write and speak Arabic along with studying the Qur’an.

Letts said he and Jack became “very concerned” about what was happening in Syria, because nobody seemed to be doing anything despite barrel bombs being dropped on innocent people.

Letts said Jack, who was baptized in Pain Court’s Catholic church, cited the Qur’an — which teaches a “real Muslim,” where possible, has a duty to help other Muslims — as his reason for wanting to go to Syria.

What most people don’t understand about his son, said Letts, is he is a “purist” when it comes to being Muslim.

Fearing for his safety, Jack’s parents convinced him he needed to improve his Arabic skills.

Around age 18, Jack decided to go to Jordan to visit a friend with whom he went to school in Oxford. Jack spent the summer of 2014 in Kuwait studying Arabic.

“We wanted him to keep studying, because we wanted him to go to university or college,” Letts said.

Things were going well, and Jack was sending home “wonderful messages,” then his parents didn’t hear from him for about three weeks.

They received word in late September 2014 he had gone through Syria to get to Iraq where he was immersed in the local culture to improve his Arabic. He also got married.

“We were actually calmed down then,” Letts said, adding Jack assured them ISIS was not around anywhere.

Things took a turn for the worse when Jack’s home was bombed in the late spring or summer of 2015 and the only hospital that could deal with his injuries was in Raqqa, Syria.

Letts knew his son was heading for trouble, because he couldn’t resist debating ISIS about their religious fanaticism and challenging them on Sharia law.

He was right and Jack was in and out of jail several times while in Syria.

Letts said Jack told them: “I’ve never been violent, I’ve never held a weapon, I’ve never been with ISIS, but I was in the religious opposition against them.”

However, Jack realized he was in peril and sent messages to his parents that he needed to get out of the country.

Letts said they had been in contact with British authorities, who suggested they pay to have Jack smuggled out of the country.

As the couple were preparing to do this, Letts said the authorities admitted they spoke too soon and warned they would have to arrest the couple if they sent the money.

“Sure enough, we tried to send the money, and it was blocked and the next morning, they came and arrested us at 7 a.m.,” under Section 15 and 17 of the British Terrorism Act dealing with funding terrorism, Letts said.

“The charge, specifically, is, ‘We (the police) think you should have realized that some of the money you tried to send, might have been used for terrorism,’” Letts said.

“How vague is that?” he said. “So, you don’t have to know you supported terrorism or wanted to fund terrorism, if the police think you should have known there was a chance, that’s enough to put you in jail for 14 years.”

Since then, Letts said they have had their bank accounts and credit cards frozen by the government, and been cut off from any access to social assistance. He said his wife has been fired from four jobs and friends have been threatened with similar charges under the Terrorism Act if they provide any financial assistance to the couple.

Letts said legal experts are viewing this as the most important terrorism trial in the U.K. in 20 years.

“Everyone is watching this, because if the police win, all they need to get people for anything they decide is extremism is their own opinion.”

Letts said there has never been any evidence showing his son has been involved in terrorist activities.

He is particularly angry Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer has stated four times his son is a “known jihadi fighter.”

“If he is, charge him,” Letts said. “If you have any evidence Scheer, put it forward mate, because as far as we know, the police have also said there is no evidence against him.”

He said attempts to provide evidence and information to the government or legal authorities in Canada have been denied.

Letts said initially the Kurds welcomed his son, but soon after British officials became involved, the situation changed.

He said the Kurds have indicated for months they’d be happy to hand Jack over to Canadian officials.

He said initially, “The Canadians were saying, yes we’ll have him.’”

He said Canadian officials were given numbers and contacts.

“We realized that it’s the Canadians who are dragging their feet, not the Kurds.”

He said the Canadians don’t want to receive Jack “even though they told us to the contrary.”

Postmedia Network contacted Global Affairs Canada to ask about Jack’s situation.

“We are aware of Canadian citizens being detained in Syria,” spokesperson Stefano Maron said in an email “Given the security situation on the ground, the Government of Canada’s ability to provide consular assistance in any part of Syria is extremely limited.”

The email said the Canadian government is engaged in these cases and is providing assistance to the limited extent possible.

“Canadian diplomats have established a communications channel with local Kurdish authorities in order to verify the whereabouts and well-being of Canadians,” Maron said.

The statement also said, “Reports of an agreement concerning the repatriation of Canadian citizens from Syria are false.”

Background information provided by Global Affairs states, given the security situation, it would be extremely difficult for Canadians detained in Syria to leave the region. Even if it were possible for them to leave the country, the individuals in question would likely be detained by authorities in neighbouring countries and face serious charges.

Letts is heading to Ottawa this week to plead his son’s case.

Noting he is not soft on terrorism, Letts said, “All we want is the chance for Jack to have due process. It’s what makes us different from ISIS.”

He said, “If there’s any shred of information about Jack (being a terrorist), I’ll be the first to eat my hat and say that’s absolutely fine.”</s>The father of a British-Canadian national detained in Kurdish-held northern Syrian has asked Canadian officials to help secure his release.

John Letts has asked authorities to help his 23-year old son Jack Letts, more widely known as "Jihadi Jack", after he travelled to Syria in 2014.

Since leaving the UK Jack was pictured with long hair and beard in Isil territory in Syria holding his index finger up to the sky, an Islamic gesture used by Isil as a symbol of their cause.

He was detained by the SDF last year, however he has not given an interview from prison.

Mr Letts is hoping to bring his son home, as-well-as pleading for their assistance in the repatriation of other Canadians being held in the region.

Mr Letts said his son has been detained for the past 18 months and that his health is failing.

"I need your help to save my son's life," he told journalists in Ottawa, where he was meeting officials on Tuesday to discuss his son's case and those of other detained Canadians.

Mr Letts and Jack's mother Sally Lane allegedly sent or attempted to send their son a total of £1,723 between September 2015 and January 2016.
John Letts, the father of the alleged British-Canadian Islamic State fighter Jack Letts who is being held by Kurdish forces in Syria, calls for the Canadian government to help secure his release.