Law "Jihadi Jack" stripped of UK citizenship - Who's next?

IS recruit Jack Letts loses UK citizenship

The UK is accused of "off-loading" its responsibilities for the move against the man dubbed Jihadi Jack.

www.bbc.co.uk

A Muslim convert who joined the Islamic State group as a teenager has had his British citizenship revoked.

Jack Letts - nicknamed Jihadi Jack in the press - was 18 when he left school in Oxfordshire in 2014 to join IS fighters in Raqqa, Syria.

Mr Letts, who is a dual UK-Canadian national, was jailed after being captured by Kurdish YPG forces while trying to flee to Turkey in May 2017.

The Canadian government said the UK had "off-loaded" its responsibilities.

The Home Office said it would not comment on individual cases.

Mr Letts's parents said they were "shocked" by the decision, which they said was made without their son being contacted.

"It's kind of like you're [being] kicked in the gut," John Letts told Channel 4 News.

'Unilateral action'
A statement on behalf of Canada's public safety minister Ralph Goodale's office said: "Terrorism knows no borders, so countries need to work together to keep each other safe.

"Canada is disappointed that the United Kingdom has taken this unilateral action to off-load their responsibilities."

Canada added that it was aware some Canadian citizens were being detained in Syria, but there was "no legal obligation to facilitate their return".

"We will not expose our consular officials to undue risk in this dangerous part of the world."

Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood said removing the radicalised fighter's citizenship "shunts the responsibility elsewhere" when many fighters were "radicalised here in the UK".

He added that Britain "should be leading calls" on how "foreign fighters face justice and who is ultimately responsible for bringing them to justice".

Skip Twitter post by @Tobias_Ellwood

Tobias Ellwood MP

✔@Tobias_Ellwood
https://twitter.com/Tobias_Ellwood/status/1163038933283987456

DUAL NATIONAL FIGHTERS:
The character of conflict has changed but international laws have not been updated.
If are to stay safe and prevent ISIS 2.0 we must work with our allies and think more strategically than simply removing UK citizenship from radicalised dual nationals.


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5:44 AM - Aug 18, 2019
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End of Twitter post by @Tobias_Ellwood
While the Home Office would not comment on the issue, a spokesman said: "Decisions on depriving a dual national of citizenship are based on substantial advice from officials, lawyers and the intelligence agencies and all available information.

"This power is one way we can counter the terrorist threat posed by some of the most dangerous individuals and keep our country safe."

• Jack Letts 'was ready to die for IS'
• Why jihadi's parents are guilty of funding terrorism
• How do countries deal with IS returnees?

Mr Letts, who converted to Islam when he was 16, dropped out of studying for his A-levels at a school in Oxford in 2014 before moving to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State.

The jihadist terror group became known worldwide for its brutal mass killings and beheadings.

In an interview with the BBC's Quentin Sommerville, Mr Letts said: "I know I was definitely an enemy of Britain."

After being pressed on why he left the UK to join the jihadist group, he said: "I thought I was leaving something behind and going to something better."

Image captionJack Letts was dubbed "Jihadi Jack" after he travelled to Syria in 2014
He told ITV News earlier this year that he wanted to return to the UK as he felt British - but understood it was unlikely he would be able to.

"I'm not going to say I'm innocent. I'm not innocent. I deserve what comes to me. But I just want it to be... appropriate... not just haphazard, freestyle punishment in Syria," he said, at the time. .

Mr Letts's parents, John, 58, and Sally Lane, 57, were convicted in June this year of funding terrorism after sending their son £223.

The couple were sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, following an Old Bailey trial.

Under international law, a person can only be stripped of their citizenship by a government if it does not leave them stateless.

The decision to revoke Jack Letts of his citizenship is thought to be one of the last decisions made by Theresa May's government.

It comes after then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped Shamima Begum of her UK citizenship earlier this year.

She was one of three girls from east London who left the UK in February 2015 and travelled to Syria, where she married an Islamic State group fighter.

Media captionSpeaking to the BBC in February 2019, Shamima Begum told the BBC she never sought to be an IS "poster girl"
Mr Javid said Ms Begum could claim Bangladeshi citizenship because of her family background.

But Bangladesh has said she is not a citizen and would not be allowed into the country.

Isis suspect Jack Letts stripped of British citizenship – report

Muslim convert, 24, has had his British citizenship revoked, according to the Mail on Sunday

www.theguardian.com

The Muslim convert Jack Letts, who is suspected of leaving Britain to join the Islamic State, has been stripped of his British citizenship, it has been reported.

Jack Letts was 18 when he left his Oxfordshire home in 2014 before marrying in Iraq and moving to Raqqa in Syria. Captured by Kurdish forces as he attempted to flee to Turkey in May 2017, the 24-year-old, dubbed “Jihadi Jack”, has since been held in jail in northern Syria.

According to the Mail on Sunday, Letts – who is a dual UK-Canadian national – has had his British citizenship revoked, a move that was one of the last actions of Theresa May’s government.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Decisions on depriving a dual national of citizenship are based on substantial advice from officials, lawyers and the intelligence agencies and all available information. This power is one way we can counter the terrorist threat posed by some of the most dangerous individuals and keep our country safe.”

In an interview with ITV earlier this year, Letts said he felt British and that he wanted to return to the UK, but admitted he did not think that would be likely.

Our son the terror suspect: Jack Letts’s parents on the fight to save their child

His parents, John Letts, 58, who also has dual British and Canadian citizenship, and his mother, Sally Lane, 57, were convicted at the Old Bailey in June of one charge of funding terrorism in September 2015. The pair, who sent Jack £223, avoided jail after being sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.

Speaking afterwards, they highlighted their commitment to help their son return home and stressed that he “is still a British citizen”.

The latest decision follows a move by the then home secretary Sajid Javid to strip Shamima Begum of her British citizenship in February, after the 19-year-old turned up in a refugee camp in Syria ahead of the fall of the Isis self-proclaimed territorial caliphate.

Begum was one of three girls from Bethnal Green, east London, who left the UK aged 15 in February 2015 and travelled to Syria to live under Isis.

Under international law, a person can be stripped of their citizenship by a government only as long as it does not leave the individual stateless.

It was thought Begum might have a claim in Bangladesh because of her family background, something Bangladeshi officials denied.

I don't like this precedent. The guy is surely scum but he hasn't even been convicted of anything, even if he had he was born in the UK to a British mother. I supported Shamima Begum losing her because she isn't British, but this guy is a Native.

Will Britain start stripping people of citizenship for tweets? For illegal possession of butter knives?

 

[Rancid Flid]

Firstly to be punished he needs a trial, then life imprisonment seems fitting to me.
10 years ago getting arrested for jokes or saying a man isn't a woman would have been unthinkable. The British government is out of control and it I doubt this will just end at terrorism, or they will redefine terrorism.
Tommy Robinson might go on holiday and then have his citizenship stripped because he is a dual national with Ireland.

The trouble is though, it sounds like our legal system just isn't robust enough to guarantee a conviction in these types of cases & in an ideal world, he'd be banged up in jail for life (or executed) but if the government suspects that people like this could walk away scot-free after a trial here, then what other option do they have but to strip his citizenship ?

It's all a bit of a farce though because we allow the Saudi's to keep building Wahhabi & Salafi mosques & it's generally men from these sects who are the extremists/terrorists. In pre-civil war Syria, the Wahhabi sect was banned, along with the face covering niqab but we allow it in Britain FFS. I've read several times that some Muslims who come to live in the UK are quite shocked when they start attending their local mosque & say that the hate & extremism preached there would often be illegal in their homeland.

So basically, as long as we have Wahhabi & Salafi mosques, we'll have radical & extremist Muslims in this country. It should be proscribed & if I was in charge, I'd ban the whole lot with the exception of the Ahmadiyya, who are a reformed & peaceful sect who are usually the ones that turn up to protest after a terror attack. A ban would free up a lot of much needed housing & virtually guarantee that there'd be no terror attacks from home-grown extremists. Deport or detain !

If every Brit understood the mind-set involved in Wahhabism/Salafism, then every right-minded person would be protesting on the streets to ban it. We can't understand ISIS without understanding these sects & we've been incredibly tolerant of the extremely intolerant for far too long.

The majority of Sunni and Shia Muslims worldwide disagree with the interpretation of Wahhabism, and many Muslims denounce them as a faction or a "vile sect".[7] Islamic scholars, including those from the Al-Azhar University, regularly denounce Wahhabism with terms such as "Satanic faith".[33] Wahhabism has been accused of being "a source of global terrorism",[34][35] inspiring the ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),[36] and for causing disunity in Muslim communities by labelling Muslims who disagreed with the Wahhabi definition of monotheism as apostates[37] (takfir) and justifying their killing.[38][39][40] It has also been criticized for the destruction of historic shrines of saints, mausoleums, and other Muslim and non-Muslim buildings and artifacts.[41][42][43]

There has been much concern, expressed in both American and European media and scholarship, over the fact that Wahhabi countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been financing mosques and buying up land all over Europe. Belgium, Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy have all noted the growing influence that these Wahhabi countries have over territory and religion in Europe.[387]
The concern resonates at a local level in Europe as well. In 2016, the citizens of Brussels, Belgium overturned a 2015 decision to build a 600-person mosque next to the Qatari embassy. Fear largely emanates from the fact that Belgian citizens see the mosque as an opportunity for a Wahhabi country to exert control over Muslims in Europe, thus spreading the more extreme sect of Islam.[387]
Several articles have been written that list the Cork Islamic Cultural Center as an example of one of many properties throughout Europe, paid for by the Qatari government, in an effort to spread an extreme and intolerant form of Islam known as Wahhabism.[citation needed]

Wahhabism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This is a pretty long Wiki page but is quite well written & informative.

 

[Kirito]

Britain is a stain on the earth and he's been liberated by losing his citizenship to it

 

[MW 590]

The trouble is though, it sounds like our legal system just isn't robust enough to guarantee a conviction in these types of cases & in an ideal world, he'd be banged up in jail for life (or executed) but if the government suspects that people like this could walk away scot-free after a trial here, then what other option do they have but to strip his citizenship ?

It's all a bit of a farce though because we allow the Saudi's to keep building Wahhabi & Salafi mosques & it's generally men from these sects who are the extremists/terrorists. In pre-civil war Syria, the Wahhabi sect was banned, along with the face covering niqab but we allow it in Britain FFS. I've read several times that some Muslims who come to live in the UK are quite shocked when they start attending their local mosque & say that the hate & extremism preached there would often be illegal in their homeland.

So basically, as long as we have Wahhabi & Salafi mosques, we'll have radical & extremist Muslims in this country. It should be proscribed & if I was in charge, I'd ban the whole lot with the exception of the Ahmadiyya, who are a reformed & peaceful sect who are usually the ones that turn up to protest after a terror attack. A ban would free up a lot of much needed housing & virtually guarantee that there'd be no terror attacks from home-grown extremists. Deport or detain !

If every Brit understood the mind-set involved in Wahhabism/Salafism, then every right-minded person would be protesting on the streets to ban it. We can't understand ISIS without understanding these sects & we've been incredibly tolerant of the extremely intolerant for far too long.

I heard of Syrian Christian refugees saying that they actually feel safer in Syria(in the parts under government control) than in Europe. I have some Syrian Christian ancestry so I feel sad about their persecution. It was a huge mistake for Obama to give aid to rebels in Syria as it destabilized the country and allowed for ISIS to take a huge portion and butcher many Christians. The Christians, Yazidis, and other “infidels” have more rights under the current regime than if the rebels which are sectarian and mainly composed of Sunnis took over.

The police in Britain don’t take action to stop Wahhabi preachers because they are afraid of being called bigots. I bet that they will start arresting members of the Ahmadiyya for protesting against Wahhabism. If the Labour Party takes over, they government might even ban the reformist Imam Mohamed Tawhidi from traveling to Britain.

 

[roxitp0w3rwuzdabest420]

I don't like this either. When we droned that American citizen it should've made everyone stop and ask WTF? IDK how it goes in England but in the USA you have a right to a trial.

He's captured bring his ass home put him on trail send him to jail.

 

[Rancid Flid]

I heard of Syrian Christian refugees saying that they actually feel safer in Syria(in the parts under government control) than in Europe. I have some Syrian Christian ancestry so I feel sad about their persecution. It was a huge mistake for Obama to give aid to rebels in Syria as it destabilized the country and allowed for ISIS to take a huge portion and butcher many Christians. The Christians, Yazidis, and other “infidels” have more rights under the current regime than if the rebels which are sectarian and mainly composed of Sunnis took over.

The police in Britain don’t take action to stop Wahhabi preachers because they are afraid of being called bigots. I bet that they will start arresting members of the Ahmadiyya for protesting against Wahhabism. If the Labour Party takes
over, they government might even ban the reformist Imam Mohamed Tawhidi from traveling to Britain.

I've spent a fair bit of time looking into the Syrian civil war, mainly because what the media was reporting about it just seemed really off & hard to believe. I've heard lots of Syrians say that they often didn't even know what religion their neighbours were as it wasn't that important to them & sectarian violence was rare before the war, probably because Assad just wouldn't stand for extremism of any type, from any religion. I think the West could learn a lesson here.

It wasn't just Obama who helped & funded the so called rebels but Britain too & both the UK & US are guilty of funneling tax-payers money to terrorists in Syria, there are no "rebels" as far as I'm concerned, just terror groups fighting against Syrian government forces & their allies. Any group fighting against the armed forces of the UK or US would be deemed as terrorists, so I think it's quite farcical for our media & politicians to call them rebels. They're head chopping child killers as the video of Islamists chopping off a young boys head in the back of a pick up truck proves. The men who did that were members of Al Nusra, an ISIS type group funded by the West.

Your comment about the police & the Wahhabi mosques is correct but the whole problem is out of the police's hands really & is down to the politicians who allow the foreign funding & building of these mosques in Britain. I understand that all Koran's in UK prisons are supplied by Saudi Wahhabists & these religious fanatics have also been investing billions into our universities, usually for Islamic study centres.

It just seems so bizarre that my country allows the extremes of Islam that are often banned in Islamic countries, what a bloody mess.

 

[The best and greatest]

Sure, out of context it sounds like a terrifying precedent, but what exactly would be the appropriate punishment for a traitor in every sense of the word? Revoking his citizenship is a mellow punishment compared to what I would've proposed: Send him to Syria to be tried by them as an ISIS terrorist. That should put shit into some perspective for him.

You're absolutely correct. I suspect the only reason they didn't is because it would have looked bad for the UK to allow it in some sense. Still the future is uncertain. Perhaps it sets a precedent or maybe is a one-time thing that never is repeated.

I'm pretty sure if this shit happened in nazi Germany, The guy would've been executed very quickly , Ethnic German or not .
i.e. even Nazis knew that the country is more important than racial purity as much as they liked the latter .

Pretty sure if he were a contemporary ethnic german he'd be working for the SS.

 

[Absolutego]

TBH even when ignoring how unsympathetic the target is and the worrying precedent it sets, I'm against this as it's once again a case of the UK taking the easy way out to avoid confronting the problem they've let fester in their Muslim communities for decades out of a slavish dedication to "tolerance".

Just like with that Bengali ISIS broodmare a few months back, they're just stripping the terrorist of citizenship instead of prosecuting them locally because if they actually went through with that the resulting riots among the local Muslim population would make their lives difficult. Bongs are just being cucks, per usual.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Its not about him, I don't care about him. Its about the fact the British government can take citizenship from an ethnic Briton who was born and raised in Britain.

Traditionally the one thing that can strip you of citizenship is to take up arms for a hostile foreign power or army.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

OP is right. The dude shouldn't be stripped of citizenship if he hasn't even been CONVICTED. You can't just go punishing people without any procedure for it. This is a travesty.

Edit: They can burn him at the stake for all I care, as long as he gets a trial.

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

OP is right. The dude shouldn't be stripped of citizenship if he hasn't even been CONVICTED. You can't just go punishing people without any procedure for it. This is a travesty.

Edit: They can burn him at the stake for all I care, as long as he gets a trial.

There is no way to punish some people. You just cobble together a series of accusations and sanctions and hope that they figure out that they're fucking up and need to change

 

[Queen Elizabeth II]

Good fucking riddance.

Who needs a trial when there's direct footage from the horses mouth saying death to Britain? There's nothing to deliberate over, he even admits he is guilty.

The only way he should be coming back to the UK is in several compactly packed parts so they can mount his head upon a spike on Tower bridge, just like the British did with traitors of old.

Ditto for the Jihadi Brides and the rest of them.

It's somewhat entertaining watching Americans say "B-But he hasn't been convicted oni-chan" when we all know his entire family would have been shot if they lived over there by now.

 

[Crabbo]

That's a reward, not a punishment.

I'd be willing to bet his own compatriots would saw his head off for being too light skinned, or some shit.

 

[karz]

Anyway, you bongs should write a constitution that outlines the definition of citizenship.

Their "Rights" and "Freedoms", and, correct me if I'm wrong, their citizenship, is all implied, and has no weed paper backing these. (ha ha, get it, because the United States Constitution is written on hemp)
All of these are subject to eternal erosion by Parliament, if they even exist anymore than just pebbles and sand. If tweets directed at "protected groups" (LGBT, Muslim, etc) have the potential to warrant your arrest, I never ever want to live in the U.K. In America, I'd get put on a watchlist, and that's it, maybe an interview with glow-in-the-darks if what I was posting was too spicy, but not arrest.

 

[Troutsmacked]

It's a fucking miracle. The sitting UK government did something in the best interest of its people.

 

[Nekoyama]

The fact we wasn't stripped of it the second he joined his muzzie death cult is sad. He should be actively hunted down by the British government and put on trial for his treason

 

[Feline Supremacist]

He knows he got off easy merely being stripped of UK citizenship when he's a dual national Canadian. He's milking the pathos so a feckless pol back in leafland will throw him some money. The traitorous scum knows what's he's doing.

 

[76LD910]

I've found it incredibly satisfying to see how the Europeans have reacted to the issue of western ISIS members and what to do with them when they've been caught. Most of them bitched constantly about us holding third worlders in without trial (as if they wouldn't react even worse to the US putting non-Americans on trial).

But now suddenly when their own citizens are hold up in camps under far worse conditions the idea of a trial isn't even entertained, they won't even arrange for them to come back or even let them come back in some cases, going as far as to basically unperson them. It's almost like indefinite detention without trial was the only logical option from the start when dealing with people who are suspected of engaging in international terrorism/war crimes and there never was an alternative.

They're all just to pussy to outright admit it and do things like this instead of owning up to it. Unfortunately for them the US backed Kurds have quit a few of their people locked up and that can't go on indefinitely, good thing Obama didn't shut down Guantanamo because I have a feeling its going to see a new, more diverse group of long term occupants soon.