Jihadi Jack’s father says his son has been tortured and is suffering from extreme OCD as he blasts the government for ‘shirking its responsibility’ by stripping the ISIS fighter of his British citizenship
- John Letts says Britain has passed buck to Canada by tearing up son’s passport
- Claims that his son turned to Islam while being plagued by mental health issues
- Told Good Morning Britain that he became obsessed with the rituals of Islam
- Insists that Jack Letts did not leave Oxford for Syria in order to join terrorists
The father of an Isis fighter has slammed the government for stripping his son of British citizenship and says that he has been tortured by captors.
John Letts today told Good Morning Britain that his son, Jack, suffers from extreme Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that caused a fixation with Islam.
It comes after the Oxford Islamist – nicknamed Jihadi Jack – had his passport torn up by the Home Office and was left hoping he could return to the West on a Canadian one.
This morning Mr Letts said the government was in denial for failing to bring Jack home as he alleged that Kurdish forces had tortured him and accused Britain of passing the buck to his native Canada.
‘The British government is shirking its responsibility its passing on a problem that they should be dealing with,’ he said.
Mr Letts (pictured on Good Morning Britain today) says that his son suffers from mental health issues and claims that he has been tortured
He added: ‘The victims of Isis crime deserve some justice here we are shirking our responsibility and passing it on to the Canadians.’
Mr Letts believes his son had ‘humanitarian reasons for going to the Middle East’ and said: ‘He did not go to Syria to join Isis.’
He and his wife Sally Lane were found guilty of funding terrorism in June after they sent him £223 while he was in Syria despite concerns he was involved in terror.
Today, Mr Letts that if his son has worked with terrorists in the region then he should be arrested and punished, adding: ‘I’m not soft on terror.’
Mr Letts, from Oxford, was captured by Kurdish fighters
Since his son’s British citizenship has been revoked, a source said that the Canadian government retorted that Jack had ‘very little to do with Canada’.
Speaking to Richard Bacon and Ranvir Singh today, Mr Letts said that his son converted to Islam during a mental health crisis.
He said that OCD crippled his son’s ability to focus so badly that the ‘top student’ couldn’t even read properly.
But he found peace in religion and mastered Arabic within about six months, also memorising the Koran.
Mr Letts said that with this new religious zeal came fears of failing to observe the faith correctly.
‘He was convinced that if he didn’t perform the rituals of Islam properly that he would it would be that sense of doom so he would take an hour to wash,’ he said. ‘It became really dominant.’