'Let me rot in Canada,' pleads Canadian ISIS suspect from secret Syrian prison
CTV
W5's Avery Haines tells the story of Jack Letts, a Canadian Muslim convert in a Syrian jail, accused of being a member of ISIS. In part two of a three-part investigation, Haines speaks with Letts, who issues a plea to return to Canada to face justice.
Editor's note: This is the second of a three-part investigation in which CTV W5's Avery Haines tells the story of Jack Letts, a Canadian Muslim convert currently in a Syrian jail after he was accused of being a member of the Islamic State. Part two focuses on how W5 found Letts in one of Syria's secret prisons, and his plea to return to Canada to face justice.
For years, Sally Lane and John Letts have feared their son Jack is dead—and no one has told them.
Their fears lingered in my mind as I travelled for days across a perilous region of northeast Syria, hounding Kurdish officials to honour their promise to let me interview him. By the fifth day, it became clear: they had no idea where their longest-serving foreign inmate was.
Jack Letts, 29, who has been in their custody for seven-and-a-half years without ever having been charged with a crime, was lost in the labyrinth of secret prisons holding suspected ISIS members.
This region is dotted with makeshift Kurdish-run prisons, housing an estimated 10,000 suspected ISIS members from more than 70 countries.
Without legal systems to process foreign nationals, Kurdish authorities insist it is the responsibility of detainees’ home countries to take them back.
