Brit ISIS recruit Jihadi Jack spotted cowering in hellhole Syrian jail as parents beg UK Government to take terror coward back
JIHADI Jack was spotted cowering on the floor of a Syrian hellhole prison just days ago in a TV news report seen by his desperate parents.
Footage shows the terror coward – who once declared himself an “enemy of Britain” – looking gaunt as he curls up in the overcrowded cell.
Mum Sally Lane – who with husband John Letts is calling for their terrorist son’s return to Britain – noticed him in the report for US network CBS.
The footage shows him in an orange jumpsuit alongside other inmates who have been captured by Kurdish militia.
Filmed at a secret prison, Letts is believed to be behind bars in the city of Qamishli – where he has been held without charge or trial.
The 23-year-old left a plush middle class life to join ISIS in Syria, but was captured by Kurdish forces as the terrorist caliphate collapsed.
PLEA TO RETURN
After being captured, he meekly pleaded to be allowed back to his Oxfordshire home saying he had “no intention of blowing up Britons.”
He was stripped of his UK citizenship by former Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
His mother, Sally Lane, spoke to the Mail On Sunday and pleaded for him to be allowed to return and face trial in this country.
But the Home Office has dismissed her request, it’s reported.
It’s heart-rending to see your son like this and to feel so completely powerless
Sally Lane
She said: “It’s heart-rending to see your son like this and to feel so completely powerless.
“We have been pressing the Red Cross for months to tell us what the jail is really like.
“But they always refuse, saying that to release this information would jeopardise their access.
“I suppose I always hoped Jack was exaggerating, but now it’s clear that he wasn’t – and that it’s worse than my worst nightmares.”
Organic farmer John, 58, added: “It’s very difficult to see a photo of the son you love, and took care of for 18 years, sleeping half-naked on a concrete floor crammed in a room with so many others, equally emaciated and suffering.
“Is this really the best way for our democracy to deal with this issue?”
FLED TO CALIPHATE
Letts – still a citizen of Canada, where his father John comes from – fled to the so-called caliphate in 2014 but denies being a fighter.
He escaped from the de facto capital Raqqa in May 2017 and since then he has been held at the prison.
Sally and John Letts were convicted at the Old Bailey in June of supporting terrorism by sending Jack £223 in 2015.
But they were found not guilty for trying to wire him a further £1,500 to pay a people smuggler to try to get him out.
They were given suspended sentences.
Tory MP Crispin Blunt, a former soldier, met Jihadi Jack last month.
He has called on Britain to relieve the burden placed on the Kurds – who had “done most of the dying in achieving victory over ISIS” – by taking back UK-born fighters.
The British Government should be taking responsibility for our nationals, not removing citizenship from them
Tory MP
Mr Blunt said: “The British Government should be taking responsibility for our nationals, not removing citizenship from them.
“The situation the photos show is not sustainable.
“The prisoners need to go through a justice process.
“And if we can’t get the courts to convict them, we have the means to put them under surveillance.”
But a Home Office source said: “Jihadi Jack signed up to join people who hate this country, hate our beliefs and hate our way of life.
“His parents, who have been convicted of funding terrorism by the British courts, are wasting their breath.
“Law-abiding Brits will think he’s got off easy in that squalid prison.
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“The thousands of victims of Jack’s terrorist friends weren’t that lucky.”
Canada has also refused to take back ISIS fighters.
Kurdis forces are believed to be holding as many as 60 British ISIS recruits – split evenly between male and female – in northern Syria.
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