Jihadi Jack wants to return to UK, says misses his mum

February 23, 2019 20:28

A British Muslim convert, dubbed Jihadi Jack, has become the latest member of the Islamic State terrorist group to urge the UK government to allow him to return to the country, saying he is missing home and his mother.

Jack Letts had travelled to Syria in 2014 and was later captured by the Kurdish-led YPG the group fighting against Islamic State when he fled Raqqa, the de facto capital of the terror network.

The 23-year-old from the city of Oxford was interviewed by the UK's ITV News channel this week from a prison cell in Syria, where he is being held after being charged by the YPG with being a member of the ISIS.

"I miss people mostly, I miss my mum. Five years I haven't seen my mum, two years I haven't spoken to my mum. I miss pasties. And 'Doctor Who'," he said, in reference to food and TV shows from the UK.

"I feel British, I am British. If the UK accepted me, I would go back to the UK, it's my home. But I don't think that's going to happen," said Letts, who holds dual nationality through his Canadian father.

Letts said he did not know if his Canadian passport would still be valid.

His parents, John Letts and Sarah Lane, face a trial in the UK over claims they funded terrorism by sending their son money. The couple deny the charge and insist their son went to Syria to help refugees.

The UK Home Office has not commented on the interview, which comes just days after an interview with Shamima Begum a Bangladeshi-origin so-called jihadi bride who had fled London as a 15-year-old schoolgirl to join the IS in 2015.

Now as a 19-year-old new mother in a Syrian refugee camp she has made a plea to be allowed to return to the UK.

-- PTI

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