A Vice news journalist, who was imprisoned in Turkey for 131 days, was released on bail, according to CNN after the organization tweeted about it on Tuesday.
Mohammed Rasool along with two British journalists, Phil Pendlebury and Jake Hanrahan, were detained in August of last year. They were charged with “knowingly and willfully helping the armed terrorist organization without being a part of its hierarchical structure,” according to Turkey’s semiofficial Anadolu news agency.
Vice explained that the journalists were reporting about the clashes between police and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which led them to be detained in the southeastern Turkish city of Dirabakir, a heavily Kurdish area. The PKK are listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Vice:
Rasool is now looking forward to being reunited with his family, friends and colleagues, who ask for his privacy to be respected during this time
The Committee to Protect Journalists had called on Diyarbakir authorities to release the trio and allow them to resume their work,” according to CNN. “The committee said its research indicated that broadly worded anti-terror laws in Turkey have allowed authorities to conflate the coverage of banned groups and sensitive topics with anti-state activity.”
About 13 other journalists are imprisoned in Turkey, according to CPJ’s Joel Simon.
