Jihadi Jack loses UK nationality

London, August 18

A former Islamic State recruit, referred to as Jihadi Jack for his British links, has been stripped of his UK nationality, according to UK media reports. Jack Letts, a 24-year-old Muslim convert from the town of Oxford, had travelled to Raqqa in Syria as a teenager in 2014 and fought with ISIS before leaving the terrorist group a few years ago.

Letts, who is now being held in a Kurdish jail in northern Syria, has dual Canadian nationality through his father. Under international law, the UK Home Office can revoke British citizenship as long as the individual is not made stateless due to the decision.

While the Home Office said it didn’t comment on individual cases, a spokesperson noted, “Decisions on depriving a dual national of citizenship are based on substantial advice from 

officials, lawyers and the intelligence agencies and all available information.”

Letts was 18 when he left school in Oxfordshire to join ISIS fighters and was jailed after being captured by Kurdish YPG forces while attempting to flee to Turkey in 2017.

In an interview last year, he said he felt British and that he wanted to return to the UK, but admitted he did not think that would be likely. “I know I was definitely an enemy of Britain,” he told the BBC. — PTI

About him 

Jack Letts, a 24-year-old Muslim convert from the town of Oxford, had travelled to Raqqa in Syria as a teenager in 2014 and fought with ISIS before leaving the terrorist group a few years ago. He is now in in a Kurdish jail in northern Syria.