Canada Agrees to Repatriate Nearly Two Dozen Citizens From ISIS Detainment Camp

The Canadian government has agreed to bring back four men, six women, and 13 infants currently held in an Islamic State detainment center in northern Syria.

The news comes as a surprise given that Lawrence Greenspoon, an attorney representing most of the group, revealed Thursday that the men were originally excluded from the repatriation deal.

Greenspoon applauded the Trudeau government’s decision.

“There is no evidence any of them have been tried or convicted, let alone tried in a manner recognized or sanctioned by international law,” Greenspoon told the CBC. “These are Canadian citizens, they are being unlawfully, arbitrarily detained in either detention camps or in prisons, they haven’t been charged with anything.”

Among the group of men includes Jack Letts, a dual British-Canadian national who converted to Islam, traveled to Syria, and admitted to joining the Islamic State. Known as “Jihadi Jack,” Letts said of himself in one interview with the BBC: “I was definitely an enemy of Britain.” Letts also called his decision to join the Islamic State “a big mistake,” adding, “I did what I did.”

Letts’s parents, who were convicted of funding terrorism for transferring money to their son whilst in Syria, were sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2019 and have maintained their son’s innocence.

“We are overjoyed at today’s ruling and believe we will finally get to see our son again after what has been a very long, arduous struggle against the Canadian government,” Letts’s mother, Sally Lane, said following the announcement.

“While we are concerned about the lack of time-frame appended to the judge’s declaration on the men’s repatriation, we trust that the government will adhere to his exhortation to bring them home as soon as possible.”

Alexandra Bain, founder of Families Against Violent Extremism, similarly dismissed the idea that any of the women or children presented a risk to the Canadian public.

“I don’t think they’re dangerous. I think they are broken people. . . . They just want the chance to take care of their children and rebuild their lives,” Bain told CTV News.

Greenspoon further noted that if there was any evidence of wrongdoing amongst the group, a criminal investigation could be opened in Canada. However, Phil Gurski, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (Canada’s CIA equivalent) analyst, said such a notion was preposterous.

“The witnesses aren’t here, the evidence isn’t here . . . . As a Canadian citizen, I’m outraged that people are going to get away with it.”

The deal is Canada’s largest since the Islamic State collapsed in 2019.

Source: yahoo