Jihadi Jack’s parents are still PROUD of Isis convert son and say he’s a ‘decent’ kid as they refuse to believe he’s an extremist
JIHADI Jack's parents insist their son is a 'decent kid who has not done anything wrong' - after they were spared jail for sending him money in Syria.
Isis fighter Jack Letts, 23, left his middle-class Oxford home in 2014 and is now in prison in northern Syria being held by Kurdish authorities.
His parents John Letts, 58, an organic grain farmer, and Sally Lane, 57, a former Oxfam fundraiser, were found guilty at the Old Bailey last month of one charge of funding terrorism by sending £223 to their son in 2015.
They were spared jail when they were handed a suspended 15-month sentence. The investigation and legal case cost an estimated £7million.
In an interview with Mr Letts said: "It's nice that we are not in prison, I suppose. Though at least if you are in prison, you know there is nothing you can do."
Instead Jihadi Jack's parents are desperately fighting to get their son home to face justice from the prison camp where he has been held for more than two years without a trial.
In an interview with Sky News last month Jack said he would "love to go home" but admitted it was unlikely, adding he had "no intention of blowing [British people] up."
He told the BBC he was once ready to carry out a suicide attack and was "definitely an enemy of Britain."
He said: "I thought I was leaving something behind and going to do something better. I made a big mistake and that's what happened."
When asked about the comments made in those TV interviews his parents claim he was under duress from his jailers.
His parents also maintain he went to Iraq for humanitarian reasons and was never a fighter.
Mrs Lane said: "He was a white Englishman, surely Isis would have used him in recruitment videos and so on if he was involved...or there would be pictures of him posing with guns."
'PROUD'
Mr Letts said his son was inspired by the Arab spring and appalled by the war in Syria and the six million refugees.
He remembers a TV interview where his son said of his prison, 'If I have to stay here longer so you can get the women and children out first, that's OK'.
Discussing that Mr Letts said: "I was really proud of him saying that.
"Of course people will read that and say: 'You are proud of Jihadi Jack – you have to be insane!' But I’m sorry, from my perspective he is still a decent kid.
"I have always said that if we find something he has done wrong, I will be the first to condemn it. Until then, am I supposed to just believe what the Daily Mail says about my son?"
'SHOCK'
When Letts left home, he told his parents he was travelling to Jordan to learn Arabic.
He married the daughter of a tribal elder in Iraq, fathered a child he has never met and went to Syria where he joined Isis.
Letts, who has obsessive compulsive disorder, had turned to Islam when he was 15 or 16. He converted before travelling to the Middle East aged 18 after dropping out of his A levels at the Cherwell School.
His dad said he initially blamed himself and felt betrayed by his son's actions.
The prosecution at his trial took close account of one email Mr Letts sent to a friend, soon after they first heard the devastating news their son was in Syria.
He wrote: "I’ve lost him. I feel terrified, betrayed by Jack, embarrassed, massively let down. I know he’s not a nasty boy. But he’s very stupid and I created him, with my armchair revolutionary s***e."
When pressed on that he said: "I was in shock and fearing the worst and feeling guilty that I had raised him to support the underdog."
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He added: "I wouldn’t call myself a radical lefty as some people are doing. But certainly Jack was raised to question oppression and imperialism. We took him on the Iraq war march and all this kind of stuff. And at that moment [when I first heard he was in Syria] I was thinking, ‘Am I reaping what I sowed?’ That’s all."
But his parents said the "awful situation has gone on too long" and will not rest "until Jack is safe".
"We are not going away", Mrs Lane said. "I am hoping if we raise enough pressure, he becomes such a pain in the ass for everyone that they will hand him over."
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