News Americas, KINGSTON, Jamaica, Thurs. April 23, 2015: A 16-year-old Jamaican boy who was sent back to his homeland after being detained in Suriname earlier this month over claims that he was travelling to Turkey to join the terror network ISIS is now free.
The teen, according to Jamaica media reports, was released into the custody of his father by a magistrate at the St Mary Resident Magistrate’s Court.
He was also ordered to be placed under two years of supervised release.
The teen, whose name has not been released because he is a minor, has been in custody since April 11 after being deported to Jamaica from Suriname.
Suriname authorities there denied him entry on the basis that he was heading to The Netherlands, then to Turkey to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The teen’s family has denied the claims and according to the Jamaica Gleaneer, said instead, he was attempting to visit his mother in England who he has not seen in six years.
Jamaica’s security minister last month insisted there was “no evidence” of Jamaicans joining the Islamic State group or other terrorist groups a few days after U.S. general Gen. John Kelly, who heads the U.S. Southern Command, identified the island as one of the Caribbean nations that have produced roughly 100 would-be militants fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria.
Kelly also listed Trinidad & Tobago and Suriname as regional countries where officials believe recruits have departed for Syria.
