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Kenya Vote Chief Silent On Rebel Areas As Uncertainty Lingers. Aired 11-12p ET

Aired October 29, 2017 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:16] BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: An election where effectively only one candidate ran. Two votes for independence that

backfired in a big way. And it proved whose tentacles reached the top levels of the D.C. political food chain. Democracy in all its messy and

imperfect incarnations this hour. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson. Welcome to the show.

Before we begin tonight with the political standoff in Kenya, however, its presidential election there is confusion as to how many people actually

turned out to vote and what that figure means for the legitimacy of the poll. Many boycotted the election after opposition leader Raila Odinga

withdrew. And voting never even took place in some opposition strongholds after violence clashes. Let's get perspective from the government there.

Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto joining me now live from Nairobi. Let's begin with this confusion, sir, there seems to be about voter turnout

figures. When will the independent electoral and boundaries commission, the body charged with releasing the official letter? Give the final tally

WILLIAM RUTO, DEPUTY PRESIDENT, KENYA: There is actually no confusion about the figures that were announced by the Independent Electoral and

Boundaries Commission. The confusion or the so-called confusion arose from the figures, which were peddled around by Mr. Odinga that only 3.5 million

Kenyans showed up to vote. The reality is that 7.6 million Kenyans woke up early in the morning, went to the polling booths and voted. And shortly,

the electoral commission, either later today or early tomorrow morning, they will be announcing the results and giving a clear indication of the

voter turnout.

ANDERSON: Oh, good. Good, sir. All right. So it's late today or early tomorrow. And of course, we must clarify for our viewers' purposes that

the turnout is disputed by all parties at present so we must await that official figure as we get a result. Why sir, have you and others wrote

cast numbers ahead of the official result out of interest?

RUTO: It is not us. We have numbers from all our tallying centers around t country. Independent media houses, a (INAUDIBLE) cold plank of our

Democracy. Have on their own independent figures from tallying centers around the country and of course, the IEBC have the -- have the body

legitimately given the mandates to undertake these exercise have numbers. All of these numbers are agreeing, they are only disagreeing with the

numbers given by Mr. Odinga, who is perennial, in fact, pathological liar about numbers or peddler of untruths.

ANDERSON: Mr. Ruto, I guess it does though, beg the question, doesn't it? Why not wait for the official tallies especially at a time of heightened

political sensitivity?

RUTO: All of us are waiting for the numbers, Becky. We are -- we are in no hurry. The legitimate body that will announce these results are in

charge of this process. They have -- we are awaiting, as candidates, and shortly, the numbers will speak for themselves.

ANDERSON: Your critics have said that the police have been two-heavy handed in their dealings with opposition producers. Your reaction, if you

will?

RUTO: It is unfortunate every other time, Becky, a Kenyan dies as a result of violence. And we regret any deaths that has happened. I think about

six people have lost their lives. Every death that happens in Kenya is invested both by the by the police and by an independent oversight

authority. However, much of this violence is orchestrated. It is sponsored. In fact, in nine percent of our country, Kenyans did not have

the chance to vote because Mr. Odinga organized militia in those areas to prevent election officials and election materials from getting to polling

stations and denying the chance for Kenyans to vote in those areas, claiming that those Kenyans don't want to vote.

[11:05:18] It is not for him to decide whether Kenyans want to vote or not.

ANDERSON: Mr. Ruto, do you have any evidence to prove that the opposition is creating this violence?

RUTO: Becky, on Wednesday, Mr. Odinga announced that he was transforming his political party, called NASA to a resistance movement. Which,

unfortunately as we have witnessed in the strongholds of the opposition, a lot of violence has been occasioned on election officials, on election

material against the police, some trying to snatch weapons from the police, others are attacking police stations. It only means that Raila Odinga who

has a track record of violence from 1982 to date and he has now transformed his political outfit into a resistance militia instead of in his sunset

years, ascending to the levels of Nelson Mandela who are Democratic icon, he has descended into the abyss of the likes of Joseph Kony who are

basically guerillas and people who use violence as a means to get their political ends.

ANDERSON: Mr. Deputy President, one person who hasn't supported this election, of course, is the opposition leader Raila Odinga who set out the

vote and called on his supporters to do the same. Here is what he told CNN just a few days ago. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAILA ODINGA, OPPOSITION LEADER, KENYA: We are creating another wing which is the -- a resistance movement. This is basically going to be involved in

civil disobedience, civil resistance, not an armed resistance. So we are going to use all the legal and constitutional means to put pressure on this

government to do what we want them to do.

ANDERSON: What is your message to any Kenyan that needs Odinga's call and participating civil disobedience?

RUTO: We are telling the people of Kenya starting with Mr. Raila Odinga that violence is not an option in Kenya. They say it's only fools who

don't land from their mistakes. We had an -- a situation Kenya in 2007, 2008. We would be idiots to go back to that situation. And when Mr.

Odinga says it is unarmed, if you look at the T.V. screens in Kenya and outside Kenya, all of these people who Mr. Raila has recruited as militia,

are armed. They have rocks, they have stones, they have catapults, they are attacking police stations. They are -- last night, he exported that

violence from Yanza, where the region he comes from and now that violence has -- he exported it Kawangware. Some houses were burned yesterday in

Kawangware by a militia group were chanting no Raila, no peace. That is not what we want in Kenya. We want to move ahead. The people of Kenya

have decided, we are a constitutional Democracy, where the people are supreme.

ANDERSON: OK. OK. Let me ask you this. If you were -- if your party were to lose this election, would you accept the result? Were you to win,

will you end to enter into dialogue with the opposition? Where does Kenya go from here?

RUTO: We are Democrats. We believe in the rule of law. We didn't agree with the Supreme Court (INAUDIBLE) our win but because we respect the

constitution, and institutions set up by the constitution, we agreed to go back to a reelection and that is why we went into this repeat election. We

will abide by the decision of the people of Kenya. And so as for engaging Mr. Raila in discussions, we are an open society, we speak to all citizens,

we will speak to Mr. Odinga the way we spoke to all other Kenyans on forging a way forward. We are ready to discuss with him. We are even

ready to discuss with him his retirement package.

ANDERSON: But we will be speaking to Mr. Raila Odinga as when we get the results.

[11:10:03] All sides of this story of course here, on CNN for the time being, and ahead of those results we thank you very much indeed for joining

us. Thank you.

RUTO: Thank you very much.

ANDERSON: Returning now to an overwhelming call for Spain. Thank you too. Remain as one of -- as a sea of demonstrators stays to the street of

Barcelona to reject Catalonia's declaration of independence. The unity rally comes as Spain asserts direct control over the region. Catalonia's

government is being dissolved with new elections set for December. CNN's Erin McLaughlin joining me now from Barcelona with the very latest.

Incredible scenes today, Erin. Explain and describe what you've seen and heard.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Becky. I was at that demonstration. It was absolutely massive according to the Barcelona

police. Some 300,000 people were there for it. According to organizers, the number was over a million. People young and old from all over

Catalonia. This is when many demonstrators called the silent majority. They feel that their voice has not been heard in the Catalan government's

push for independence and they want to change that. They want the world to know that they're Spanish, their Catalan, and they're European. They also,

some of the demonstrators that was talking to had some strong words for the now-dismissed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont that a crowd at times

some chanting that he should go to jail. Take a listen to what some of the demonstrators had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody is concerned, that's why we are here. And we want to tell them separately that we don't want them to not to separate us

anymore. Our families, our friends and to make -- he's doing to the Catalan economy. So we want him to resign and have a legal vote and reach

many parties that are here represented and lead us to a new government and to be part of Spain as we have been in the last five centuries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm here because I want to protect the (INAUDIBLE) and tell people, OK, we want to start a new nation that will help us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLAUGHLIN: Now, going forward in terms of what to look for this week, next steps, Becky, tomorrow, of course, is Monday, the key question that

people here are asking is, will Puigdemont show up for work at the Catalan Central Government Headquarters her in Barcelona. And if he does, what

will be the response from Madrid, especially when you consider that the prosecutor is preparing charges of rebellion. Those charges expected to be

filed tomorrow as well, Becky.

ANDERSON: Erin McLaughlin on the story for you out of Barcelona in Spain. Well, it's not just in Europe that people want to break free. Up next,

this guy wanted his people to be going, going, gone but if backfired in an epic way. So now after escaping assassination and leading a Civil War, he

is going, going, gone himself. Well, almost. Details up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:36] ANDERSON: Now, what have we got for you? It's pop quiz Sunday he on CTW. So put your fact-first thinking caps on and take a hard look at

this. It is the outline of a very important part of our world that wants to go it alone. Breaking away from the country it's in. So, it's not

Scotland, it's not Catalonia, it's -- got it? No, OK. One little clue. It starts with a K. It's Kurdistan, of course. Come on, you all knew

that, didn't you? You are smart cookies. It's been on our show almost non-stop lately, and now again, too. Because in just the last few hours

after 12 years running the place, its regional president Masoud Barzani announcing he is stepping aside. Here's a backstory for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He took them not brink, but not to the end. Iraqi Kurds charging ahead, voting to make themselves a state anew from parts of

Iraq. A dream so long in the making for Barzani.

MASOUD BARZANI, PRESIDENT, IRAQI KURDISTAN: The time is here for the Kurdistan people to determine their future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: The time, though, wasn't now. That dream crushed under the weight of Iraqi forces and a political assault from Turkey, Iran, and

Baghdad destroying the political legacy of Masoud Barzani himself. He being widely respected for doing something no one has ever done before.

Giving the Kurds a space in which to rule themselves, some largely be left to it. Cash, business, life all booming there. Decades of handshakes,

nods, and schmoozing finally paying off. Then a moment unlike any other. The Kurds, key to crushing ISIS. So surely, a country of their own would

be their prize. Also, Barzani after years of hope and work before these scenes reckoned on.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: I congratulated Iraq's leaders on the agreement we reached yesterday in Baghdad.

ANDERSON: Such words from Washington to Barzani's epic miscalculation.

Having a referendum on such a fast timeline particularly in disputed areas would be -- we think significantly destabilizing. And we've made those

views very clear.

ANDERSON: Caution though to the wind, it was now or never, went the thinking in Kurdistan. This was what they'd suffered before. Just some 30

years or so ago, Iraq's barbaric despot, Saddam Hussein, slaughtering Kurds with chemical gas. A man just a few years later, Barzani then made friends

with, to fight a Civil War among the Kurds themselves. A war he won. Barzani has lived a fighter, born into the struggle for Kurdistan. His

father, a legendary fighter raising a kingdom for Kurds that evaporated under the British assault. The dreams of the father now not to be lived by

that son.

So instead perhaps by his, for the Barzanis, independence is a family struggle. Well, Barzani's timeline in government of late echoed by

another. That of longtime independence champion, Najmaldin Karim, he's just played out, well, slightly ahead of Barzani. He was popular. He

wanted the vote, and then had to leave, nay, flee his office. Kareem was fired by Iraqi lawmakers just about a month ago. And just about a month

before that, he was on CNN. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAJMALDIN KARIM, FORMER GOVERNOR, KIRKUK: From the beginning when our land has been incorporated to form the current country of Iraq, this country has

not been in peace with its own people or with its neighbors. So I believe for the people of Kurdistan to express their opinion as far as a

independence is a legitimate flight and the history that the Kurds have been through with successive Iraqi governments, is a proof that the current

arrangements are not working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, if he thought things weren't working out then, what about now? Let's find out by asking him. He is joining us now live from the

capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil. And sir, before we get to other issues, what is your reaction Masoud Barzani stepping down?

[11:20:12] KARIM: First of all, thank you for having me. Mr. Barzani actually is not stepping down. His term is ending and he has promised the

people of Kurdistan that he will -- he will not remain as president and he does not want his term to be extend or submit himself for election or for

that matter, anybody from his family. So this is just a normal thing he's doing. He carried the banner to -- for the referendum. The referendum was

done very peacefully. But unfortunately, the reaction of the Iraqi government and the neighboring countries were brutal. But that dream stays

alive. That dream still with us. I still believe very strongly that Kurdistan one day will become independent and it's probably sooner than a

lot of people think.

ANDERSON: His critics will say that this referendum coming when it did was a massive miscalculation. On timing, if no other reason, do you see some

sense in those criticisms?

KARIM: Well, of course, there are always what's called Monday night quarterbacking. So this is exactly that. In Kurdistan, before the

referendum, there were rallies. All of the political parties never said they are not for referendum. They were all for independence. Actually,

the only -- the only person who openly came out again the referendum tried to gather a group to show his support and all of that, and he couldn't get

more than2,000 people. So I think -- we knew there were risks. We knew there were risks. It wouldn't be a picnic to ask for a referendum. You

know, separating from a country that has oppressed us, subjugated us for the past hundred years, we expected this. It's not like we didn't expect

it.

ANDERSON: Right.

KARIM: But one thing that we didn't expect is actually for our friends, the people who we fought with, the people who defended not just our country

but also their counties against ISIS, against terrorist to stand by and actually give tacit approval to the oppressors.

ANDERSON: With respect, sir --

KARIM: -- and support them in this endeavor.

ANDERSON: And I hear what you're saying, but with respect, even those that you stood with, that being the Iraqis and the U.S. for example, in the

fight against ISIS, we're very, very vocal about the fact that his wasn't the time to have this referendum. Sides that normally go up against each

other had been hammering on almost everything had come together to agree for once to tell you, hey, Kurdistan, don't go ahead with this vote of

yours. You did, you got burned, you had a good thing going. Do you regret that decision?

KARIM: Actually, I don't. I think this decision had to be made and the reaction would have been exactly the same thing. And by the way, the

discussion I have had with our western friends from different countries was only, don't do it now, do it after the elections. And what we asked them,

say, OK, why don't you tell us publicly and then we will accept that. But just to say, don't do it, this is not a good time, I think that was not

enough for us. And I think this referendum had to be done and it's true, we temporarily lost some areas of Kurdistan now which is occupied -- it's

consider occupied rather than disputed anymore now because they came by force. We asked for dialogue after the referendum. They refused to come

forward. And I think out people are supportive of this. And the people who come -- this is what Kennedy said. Victory has thousands of fathers

and defeat is an orphan. And this is exactly that scenario.

ANDERSON: Briefly, sir, briefly, and I -- and I -- and I hear what you're saying, look, this has been very painful for you, personally. You fled

your home and you said at t time that you had no plans to return. You said that you fought -- you felt that your life was in danger. Do you still

feel that way?

KARIM: First of all, I didn't flee. I left the house because my house, I got accurate reliable information that the house will be attacked and there

was a price on getting me dead or alive.

[11:25:10] So I, obviously, wouldn't sit there for them to come and get me. I stayed in the city. I left, actually the next day, Monday evening, and I

got into Erbil by Tuesday morning actually. And I'm going to go back and Kirkuk and I'm sure we will get Kirkuk back and with the people of Kirkuk

who have fled oppression and treachery, actually. This was a rogue element, if it wasn't for that treachery and the rogue elements within the

U.K. to do this, I think this wouldn't have happened.

ANDERSON: All right.

KARIM: And the proof is that the day after in Kirkuk and two days later in Mosul area, our forces were able to resist and actually defeat the

aggressors.

ANDERSON: We're going to leave it there. We thank you very much, indeed, for joining us. The former governor of Kirkuk for you this evening. Still

to come. A family's heartbreak. I speak to the parents of this young British man accused of being a member of ISIS. Ahead, why they say he went

to Syria.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Right in Washington for you. Welcome back, by the way. And if you have just joined us, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky

Anderson for you and you are very, very welcome out of our Middle Eastern Hub. It is just before half past 7:00. So, in Washington, the waiting

game is on the first charges filed in Robert Mueller's Russia were approved on Friday. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz helped the break the story with more on

what comes next.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: He charges remain sealed and still no word on who is facing charges and what the charges are. We do

hope that later today we may get some word on whether anyone had been asked to surrender. All indications are at some point on Monday, the indictment

will be unsealed and we will learn what the charges are. Attorneys representing some of people who are under investigation that we have talked

to, so far, have not been asked to have their clients surrender. So for now, all this still a mystery, that will hopefully get answered sometime

Monday.

ANDERSON: Right. Well, meanwhile, the White House press secretary sought to turn the spotlight on Democrats and one of President Trump favorite

targets, Hillary Clinton.

[11:30:02] On Friday, Sarah Sanders said if any collusion took place, it would be between the DNC and the Clintons. This comes amid reports that

Mr. Trump wants the State Department to release any remaining emails from Clinton's time as secretary of state.

CNN political analyst and columnist for "The Washington Post" and friend of the show, Josh Rogin, joining me now.

Just tee up if you will, Josh, this coming week for us in Washington.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Basically what we're going to have is two tracks.

We are going to have on the one hand half of the politicians and political press following this story of the Mueller charges, who's going to get

charged, are they going to get arrested, what does that mean for the investigation?

And on the other hand you're going to have the president, as we saw from his string of tweets this morning, and his allies, including his allies in

the media, trying to change the story to something else, whatever it is they can succeed in.

And if you saw the president's tweets this morning it could be anything. It could be the Iranian deal; it could be Fusion GPS and the dossier. It

could be Clinton's e-mail. They're just lining up a number of arguments.

And it's not they're not really mutually exclusive to try to make next week about -- or this week about anything but the actual Mueller investigation

and the arrest (INAUDIBLE) we'll see. Of course both sides are going to be successful.

So now we'll have a lot of coverage and a lot of interest in the status of the Russia investigation, which is done largely behind closed doors, but

will now come out into the open in a really unprecedented way, if and when these indictments are unsealed and arrests are made.

And on the other hand we're going to have to go through this process of examining all of these issues, which are intended to be distractions but

may have news value in and of themselves. So we'll have to wait and see.

ANDERSON: Josh, always a pleasure having you on, sir, particularly on a Sunday. A busy week in Washington for my colleagues there. Thank you,

sir.

ROGIN: Thank you

ANDERSON: ISIS on the back foot, ousted from areas it once terrorized. We know where it's lost major battles, don't we?

Raqqa, Mosul. But where's it going?

What we've known for a while at least is the people who left Europe to fight in the name of ISIS sometimes make their way back home.

Well, the U.K. reports around 850 extremists left Britain for Syria and Iraq. And it also says about half of those have returned. Recent numbers

from Europol says about 5,000 people left Europe to join ISIS and about 1,700 of those have gone back home.

Well, a British lawmaker, Rory Stewart, who's very well known for his experience in the Middle East, thinks there's only one way to deal with

ISIS fighters. Have a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RORY STEWART, BRITISH LAWMAKER: They are absolutely dedicated (INAUDIBLE) Islamic State towards the creation of the caliphate.

They believe in an extremely hateful doctrine, which involves killing themselves, killing others and trying to use violence and brutality to

create an 8th century or a 7th century state.

So I'm afraid we have to be serious about the fact that these people are a serious danger to us and, unfortunately, the only way of dealing with them

will be, in almost every case, to kill them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, that was British MP Rory Stewart.

One those British citizens in question, a young man from Oxford, who traveled to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria back in 2014 In an

interview with a U.K. TV station last year this man, Jack Letts, said he wasn't with ISIS.

Well, his parents tell us that he is now in a Kurdish jail. They haven't spoken to him or had contact with him since July. Jack's parents, John

Letts and Sally Lane, after consulting their lawyer and through his counsel, agreed to speak to CNN. They had just finished a six-day hunger

strike protesting the U.K. government.

They say it hasn't done enough to help their son. Well, I asked them what they made of Rory Stewart's comments advocating for killing people like

their son, accused, but not convicted in any court of law, of being an ISIS member. This is my interview with them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALLY LANE, JACK LETTS' MOTHER: He is being held indefinitely in prison, in a Guantanamo-style site, where he has no contact with the outside world.

So he has no access to a lawyer or to the Red Cross or to his family or to anybody, really. People have been trying to gain access to him to no

avail.

[11:35:00]

LANE: So not only has he not been, you know, convicted as a terrorist, he hasn't even been discovered to be a terrorist. Nobody is even considering

the evidence against him, if there is any.

JOHN LETTS, JACK LETTS' FATHER: As far as we know, we have seen no evidence. He went to Syria, if that in itself is the only crime, which is

what Rory seems to be mentioning, that anybody who went to Syria is an ISIS fighter and should be killed.

I mean, I think that's just outrageous. It's really a question of -- that's a policy of shoot first, ask questions later. But who asks the

questions?

The family? The parents? The children or the people who have been shot?

You hear a lot of talk about human or British values, justice, tolerance, the rule of law, freedom of speech, all of that.

How can a minister actually say that?

We're against the death penalty in this country. We live in fear and despise radical ISIS activity as much as anybody.

But as far as we know, there is no evidence against our son. And I think there are many cases in Guantanamo and many other places, where people have

been put inside and the evidence is pretty flimsy.

And so I think he should have a chance to defend himself.

ANDERSON: Sally, last year in an interview with the U.K. TV channel, Jack was asked if he was a fighter. And he replied, "Currently I'm not."

What do you think he meant by that?

LANE: Well, we don't know. He said the same thing to us as well. I think at the time he was in a sort of a small village in Iraq and, in a war

situation, you might be required to defend your village. I mean, it could be any number of things.

But without more extensive questioning ,we're never going to know. And that's what Jack is being denied. He's being denied the opportunity to

answer those very sorts of questions.

(CROSSTALK)

LETTS: But what he's --

ANDERSON: Go on.

LETTS: -- he has consistently told us, however, in messages and online social media that he has always stood against ISIS, that he was never a

member of ISIS. And that was fabricated by a journalist from a British weekend newspaper way back.

That's where this whole story started, a journalist said in print that Jack had phoned us and told us that he had joined ISIS. We did speak to that

journalist but we certainly never said that because that never occurred. And after that was printed, every other newspaper started printing versions

of that. And now it's just common knowledge, commonly accepted that he was a member of ISIS.

That's never been shown. He stood against them, he worked against them with his colleagues, many of whom have been killed. He's condemned them on

social media, he's condemned them personally. So I don't understand. It's the opposite of what you want. You should be supporting these people.

ANDERSON: He said he left to search for truth in Syria.

What happened in the lead-up to him going there?

LANE: Well, he converted to Islam. Jack is a real purist. He has to find out absolutely everything about a subject. He does suffer from obsessive

compulsive disorder. So he wanted to read as much as he could.

And then he wanted to go there to seek the truth. He said he's found very many outstanding people out there. But people put two and two together and

say that seeking the truth must mean fighting for ISIS. And there is a huge leap there.

I mean, there are people that went out to Syria for very many different reasons. Some of them went out as surgeons. Some of them, you know, went

out as engineers, whatever. Not all of them were jihadis.

And a lot of them who went out there discovered very soon that it wasn't an Islamic State, that, you know, it was sort of in the sense of a pure

religious state that they found. It was for the brutality and terror.

But by that time they were trapped. And nobody was certainly helping them back.

ANDERSON: What do you want the British government to do?

LANE: We just want the British government to talk to their Kurdish authorities, release them into British custody and he can come back here to

answer for any charges they think he's done.

People say that it's difficult to get evidence over here about what people might have done out there but he's been investigated supposedly for five

months by the Kurdish authority.

So they're getting every kind of report that they can from people in the region as to what he may have done. So there's a body of evidence that has

been collected for five months while he's been sitting in solitary confinement. And I think people should have the chance to see it.

LETTS: You know he also said -- and I think this is really important in light of Rory Stewart's comments -- he said, I want to come back so I can

bear witness against ISIS --

[11:40:00]

LETTS: -- for what they did is not Islamic. It's not Muslim, it's not the truth. That's what he's always going on about, they're not upon the truth.

And he wants to bear witness to that.

He said that's my duty as a Muslim, which is also why he went out there. He wanted to go out to see because he said it's the duty of a Muslim,

according to the Quran, which he wanted to -- that's why he learned Arabic, to read it in the original. He said he was tired of seeing all

these different interpretations.

And his duty was to go out and help other Muslims if he could other, (INAUDIBLE) humans, if he could. And so he said he wants to come back to

tell people that ISIS is not upon the truth.

Well, surely those are the people we want to come back here to spread that message. But Rory Stewart will just have him killed without even going on

to trial or anything.

Clearly, there are a lot of people there who are nasty and who we don't want back here and should be locked up. But there is something called the

rule of law. And I think people should have the right to defend themselves.

I believe in British values and in the rule of law and justice. You should be tried by a jury of your peers, all of those things that we hear about

here. And yet you have a British minister, who's actually going completely against that. And he's supposedly a professor of human rights at Harvard

or something. I mean, I think it's shocking

ANDERSON: We've got to leave it there, guys. We thank you very much indeed for joining us. And I'm pleased you're feeling better health wise

at least. And we wish you the very best of luck. Thank you.

LANE: Thank you.

ANDERSON: Stay in touch please.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, since I spoke to Jack Letts, his parents, the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria has announced that Jack has been detained and

charged with being a member of ISIS.

John Letts tells CNN he has not had contact with the British government in regard to his son's charges and only learned of them from news reports.

Mr. Letts says if there is evidence, his son should be put on trial.

The British government says it is unable to provide support to British nationals in Syria as the government is without consular representation

there and adds that anyone who does travel to Syria for whatever reason is putting themselves in considerable danger.

Well, this is not only a British problem. As we heard it, it is one that is convulsing numerous European states. We've also had the story of a

French mother, whose son was lost in the fight again ISIS. That's on facebook.com/cnnconnect.

And you can find an awful lot more there. Your show, your site. Use it, engage with us, talk with us, tell us what you think. I'm Becky Anderson.

That was CONNECT THE WORLD. From the team here in Abu Dhabi, those working with us in London and the headquarters in Atlanta, we thank you for

watching. The news continues here on CNN. Of course, "MARKETPLACE MIDDLE EAST" is next.

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