The mother of a British-born man detained without trial in Syria for almost nine years has called on the UK or Canada to repatriate him, amid US plans to transfer thousands of Islamic State-linked prisoners from Syria to Iraq.
Sally Lane, the mother of Jack Letts, 30, said she was “frantically trying to find out as much as possible” as uncertainty grows over his fate. She said it was unclear whether he would be sent to Iraq, where he could face the death penalty, remain in Syria, or be transferred to the UK or Canada in line with US demands.
Lane said neither the British nor Canadian government had updated her following an outbreak of fighting in Syria last week, which has left the future of detainees from up to 70 countries in doubt. “We’ve heard absolutely nothing. They think we don’t deserve to know,” she said.
She added that western governments could not ignore the issue in light of the US intervention. “I can’t see that western governments will allow their citizens to be put on trial in Iraq where they have the death penalty and flawed trials,” she said.
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Lane said authorities in the UK or Canada could prosecute returnees at home if there was evidence of wrongdoing. “If there’s evidence, put them on trial. But there is no evidence,” she said.
Letts, who was raised in Oxford, travelled to Syria and Iraq at the age of 18 during the early stages of Islamic State’s so-called caliphate. He converted to Islam at 16 and dropped out of sixth form after experiencing mental health problems.
He was captured by Syrian Kurdish forces fighting IS in May 2017 and has been held without trial since. Two years later, British ministers stripped him of his UK citizenship, leaving him solely a Canadian national through his father, John, who was born in Canada.
Letts’ only contact with the outside world has been through a small number of television interviews.
In an interview with ITV seven years ago, he said: “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 … not just haphazard, freestyle punishment in Syria.”
His last known location was a prison near Raqqa in November 2024, when he was interviewed by Canadian television.
At the time, he said he had not been a member of Islamic State and claimed he had rejected the group’s ideology shortly after arriving. He said he had been imprisoned by IS three times.
Lane said she had not known her son’s exact whereabouts since then and had not had personal contact with him for more than a decade. She believes he was, or is, being held at Gweiran prison, also known as Panorama prison, in Hasakah, which is run by Syrian Kurdish forces.
Last Wednesday, US Central Command announced it had begun a planned airlift of prisoners previously held in Kurdish-run detention centres, following a series of battlefield defeats suffered by the Kurds at the hands of the Syrian government. About 150 of what it described as the most dangerous inmates were flown out on the first day.
Lane said she did not know whether her son was among those transferred but believed it was unlikely. “Jack’s small fry. He’s mostly been held in local prisons. He’s high profile only because he’s been in the news,” she said.
On Sunday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke with Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, thanking him for expediting the transfer of IS prisoners to “secure facilities” in Iraq.
According to a US state department readout, the two men also discussed diplomatic efforts to ensure countries repatriate their citizens from Iraq and bring them to justice.
Last week, Centcom said the prisoner transfer would take “days not weeks”. It said prisoners would be handed over to Iraqi authorities but did not confirm whether Letts was among those being moved.
Yvette Cooper, the British foreign secretary, said in a BBC interview last Thursday that she had been “in touch” with Rubio about the situation in Syria.
She said the UK and US shared interests in countering terrorism and extremism, but did not refer directly to the prisoner transfers.
Since 2022, the UK has repatriated six women and 10 children from Syria. Before last week’s offensive by Syrian government forces, around 55 men, women and children with British links were believed to be held in Kurdish detention.
Among them is Shamima Begum, who remains at al-Roj camp, one of the last areas still under Kurdish control.
