Jihadi Jack: Stripping me of citizenship won’t make a difference
Isis fighter from Oxford calls Boris Johnson ‘ridiculous’
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Your support makes all the difference.The British Isis fighter known as “Jihadi Jack“ has said the government decision to strip him of his UK citizenship has “very little meaning”.
“It’s just a piece of paper at the end of the day,” Jack Letts told ITV News. “Stripping me of British citizenship and not stripping me is the same thing because they’re not going to help me anyway.”
Letts, a Muslim convert from Oxford who has spent the last two-and-a-half years in a Kurdish prison in Syria, said he had been expecting the British government’s decision.
“They haven’t helped me at all,” the 24-year-old added. “It’s almost as if I’m not a British citizen anyway.”
Asked if he had a message for new prime minister Boris Johnson, he said: “I don’t know, I don’t think he’ll see this if I say anything anyway. I think Boris Johnson is ridiculous, to be honest, I think most of the British population do. It’s amazing he actually became prime minister.”
He added: “I know I’m an infamous terrorist and it’s not going really going to make a big difference by what I say.”
Letts, who had held dual UK and Canadian citizenship, joined the terrorist group after travelling to Raqqa in Syria when he was 18. He was jailed after being captured by Kurdish YPG forces while attempting to flee to Turkey in May 2017.
Last year his father, organic farmer John Letts, visited Canada to call for the country’s government to help his son leave Syria.
However, the removal of his British citizenship has sparked a diplomatic row. Canadian officials accused the UK of being “gutless” and trying to “offload their responsibilities”.
Letts said he had hoped that Canada would intervene and transfer him to a prison in North America.
“My whole life, despite the fact that I lived in Britain, I speak with a British accent and I’ve never even lived in Canada, I’ve always felt that I’m Canadian,” he said. “My dad’s Canadian. I’ve been to Canada seven times. I’ve no relatives in Britain, everyone’s in Canada.”
He added: “I don’t think where you’re from is based on a piece of paper. I never asked for citizenship ... (it has) very little meaning to me.”
However, he now fears he was being over optimistic.
“Canada has done nothing,” he said. “I had this idea that Canada was a better country. I don’t think anyone is going to help me.”
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