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I have known #JohnLetts, on and off, for 25 years. He and Sally Lane are no terrorists. They were trying to get their son OUT of Syria and AWAY from ISIS. Any parent would have done the same. This is not justice.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/j…
theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/j…
The law under which they have been convicted is ridiculous. There was no intent to fund terrorism - and they did not do so. They were trying to do something completely different - rescue their son. Yet they are convicted of it.
The only way of getting Jack out of Syria was to pay a people smuggler. Otherwise he would have been stuck there and almost certainly killed. They had no intention of keeping him out of the reach of the authorities - quite the opposite in fact.
John told me that if the evidence warranted it, Jack should be tried in a British court. But to be stuck in Syria after he had denounced Isis was a death sentence.
#JackLetts's parents told me they always hated fundamentalism. After Jack went to Syria, they had even more reason to do so. But the Terrorism Act 2000 doesn't require a mens rea - a gulty mind. There does not have to be an intention to do wrong. The law is unjust.
You don't stop terrorism with unjust laws that punish people who aren't involved and have no wish to be.
