UPDATE

We are very grateful to all our wonderful supporters who have helped us reach our target of $20,000 for Jack's legal defence fund. Our lawyer can now go ahead in his legal challenge against the Canadian government so that Jack can return to Canada.

To accommodate supporters who have said they would still like to contribute, we have created a stretch target of $25,000. This means that the appeal will stay open in order to fund further legal fees as the case develops. We will keep you updated on our progress. Thank you all so much again for your contributions.

From Sally Lane and John Letts (Jack’s parents)

Oxford, UK, January 18, 2020

In June 2019, we were found Not Guilty at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London of having tried to send £1,000 to our son Jack in Syria “for the purposes of terrorism”. The jury accepted that we had acted under duress because Jack was being pursued by ISIS who wanted to kill him for having opposed their teachings. The jury also heard that the UK police initially gave us permission to send this money. Unfortunately, we were found Guilty of sending £223 ($400 Can) to a poor, refugee family in Lebanon a few months earlier - a payment the police initially ignored. The judge accepted that we did not send this money to support terrorism. The UK Terrorism Act is very strict, however, and the police can arrest anyone who tries to send money abroad if they decide there are “reasonable grounds to suspect the money may be used terrorism”. In practice, there is no defense to this charge.

Jack escaped from ISIS in 2017. Initially, he was treated as a hero by the Kurds for having opposed ISIS, but once the British got involved, he was put into solitary confinement. He has spent the past 3 years detained without charge in a prison in NE Syria. During the 4 years we waited for our trial to begin, we were prevented by contempt of court rules from countering the lies published by the tabloid media. British journalists created the name ‘Jihadi Jack’ and claimed that Jack went to Syria to fight for ISIS. They ignored the evidence presented during our trial that Jack publicly condemned ISIS for being ‘un-Islamic’, was imprisoned and tortured for opposing them, and never joined or fought for ISIS. 

Jack has been regularly ‘interrogated’ by Kurdish, British and American forces. Initially, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) in Ottawa agreed to help repatriate him, but both the British and Canadian governments eventually implemented a strategy of delay and silence. Jack has never been charged and has no legal representation or medical treatment. He attempted suicide after having been repeatedly tortured – a claim witnessed by Mr. Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer, who met him briefly in 2018. Our last direct ‘proof of life’ was received in October, 2019.

Jack is a hostage, not a lawfully detained prisoner. He has not been given the basic human rights he is allowed by the Geneva Convention such as the right to communicate with his family and consult a lawyer and doctor - but his cell is opened for any British journalist who will condemn him in the media. The interviews the UK government claim prove he is a terrorist were obtained under torture. The UK authorities do not want the public to hear that Jack actively opposed ISIS. In 2019, they stripped him of his UK citizenship, and issued a statement that it would ‘not be in the public interest to explain why this action was taken. Without a lawyer he cannot defend himself in the UK. Jack wishes to return to Canada, and we hope to eventually join him there.  The government of Canada (GAC) will not discuss his case with us or with our lawyers, except to say that ‘Canada no longer has consular services in Syria.’

The Canadian Constitution and Charter of Rights guarantees that our government will try to help Canadians at home or abroad who are threatened with arbitrary detention, rendition and torture. Mr. Lawrence Greenspon of Greenspon-Granger-Hill Lawyers in Ottawa, has agreed to engage with the Canadian government and take the steps necessary to get Jack released and returned to Canada. We would like to ask our friends and family for donations to help cover the necessary legal fees.  Any donation large or small would be greatly appreciated.