Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton wants Islamic State jihadist and recruiter Neil Prakash to rot in jail and is standing by the decision to strip his Australian citizenship.

He’s rejected suggestions that stripping Prakash of his citizenship leaves the 27-year-old stateless.

“I believe very strongly ... that Prakash should rot in a jail in Turkey and hope that’s the case for a long period of time to come,” Mr Dutton told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday.

Melbourne-born Prakash - who is in jail in Turkey facing terrorism charges - was notified at the weekend his citizenship had been annulled because of his connections to IS.

Mr Dutton stuck by the Australian decision on Wednesday, which he says was made by him after a thorough process of verification by others.

“I’m saying the advice to the government, based on all the intricate detail and fact of this particular matter, is that Mr Prakash is, by operation of law, a citizen of Fiji,” Mr Dutton said when pressed to clarify whether Prakesh was a Fijian citizen.

Mr Dutton said Fiji was advised before the decision was made public.

He also said the Australian government has been working with Fiji since that decision but did not explain why.

The Federal Government isn’t allowed to revoke an Australian’s citizenship if it leaves them stateless.

Prakesh was believed to also be Fijian.

But the head of Fiji’s Immigration Department said Prakash, whose father was Fijian, was not one of its citizens, the Fiji Sun newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Donald Rothwell, an Australian National University expert on international law, told AP it was up to Fiji to decide who was Fijian.

“It cannot be assumed that even though Prakash and his family may have some connections with Fiji, that his Fijian citizenship would be recognised by the Fijian government,” Rothwell said.

Immigration Minister David Coleman said the Citizenship Loss Board was responsible for determining that Prakash was older than 14, served a declared terrorist organisation and a was a citizen of another country as required by the law.

“That’s its job and the outcome is that an evil terrorist is no longer an Australian citizen,” he told reporters in Sydney.

When asked if the government could be forced to reinstate Prakash’s Australian citizenship in the future, Mr Coleman said: “That will not be the case”.

However, Mr Dutton said Prakash had a right to appeal.

Labor’s immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann said Mr Dutton had questions to answer about the advice he received and what contact had been made with Fijian authorities.

“National security is too important an issue to be played with flippantly,” Mr Neumann told reporters in Brisbane.

Prakash has been in custody near the border with Syria since 2016 after attempting to enter Turkey with false documents.

His Australian passport was cancelled in 2014 and he was added to a sanctions list in 2015.

The Federal Government sought to have him extradited from Turkey over a number of serious terrorism charges but it was rejected by the Kilis Criminal Court in the country’s south earlier this year.

Prakash has previously admitted being a member of Islamic State but said he had nothing to do with the group in Australia.

He faces a potential life sentence if convicted in Australia of terrorism offences.