Jack Letts and other foreign nationals reportedly renditioned to face death penalty

CAGE has expressed deep alarm at reports that Jack Letts has been renditioned from detention in northern Syria to Al Karkh prison (formerly Camp Cropper) in Iraq where he may face the death penalty.

These reports have not yet had official confirmation. But the likelihood is that he, along with others held in the region, has been kidnapped and moved to Iraq. And it raises serious alarm about the complicity of western nations in serving their citizens up for torture, and possibly death sentences.

Iraq is also one of the world’s leading executioners, and individuals transferred there face the very real risk of severe human rights violations, including the death penalty after trials that fall far short of international legal standards.

For years, hundreds of foreign nationals, including those with UK links, have been held in conditions of indefinite detention without due process. Abuse, violence and deaths in these facilities have been widely documented.

As a young vulnerable man, Letts travelled to territory controlled by ISIS. Following the collapse of ISIS, he was detained alongside hundreds of others and taken to US funded, Kurdish-run prison camps in northern Syria.

The UK government chose to strip Jack of his citizenship, knowing full well that this could lead to him facing torture and a death sentence without due process.

The UK cannot wash its hands and use citizenship deprivation, a legal instrument that relegates Muslims and those of overseas ancestry as second class citizens, to facilitate the extrajudicial detention and murder of its own nationals

Western governments supported an illegal war and now must begin with the repatriation of foreign nationals and securing guarantees of due process for all who remain.

Anas Mustapha, head of public advocacy at CAGE International, said:

No parent should have to endure the agony of knowing their child is trapped in a prison system where they face torture and potential death. The ongoing suffering of families like the Letts highlights the urgent need for Western governments to repatriate their citizens and contribute to ending this crisis which they’ve contributed to.

Featured image via CAGE