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JAPAN-SYRIA-CONFLICT-MEDIA
Japan confirms journalist held in Syria released
TOKYO, Oct 24, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The Japanese government on Wednesday
confirmed that a journalist kidnapped in Syria more than three years ago has
been freed and is in Turkey.
“We have confirmed the safety of Jumpei Yasuda, who had been held captive
in Syria since 2015,” Foreign Minister Taro Kono told reporters.
“He appears to be in good health… We’re very glad he’s safe.”
Japanese officials said late Tuesday they were trying to confirm reports
that the 44-year-old freelancer, who was seized in June 2015, had been freed.
Embassy officials visited him at an immigration centre in Antakya in
Turkey, and he is expected to return to Japan soon, after health checks.
Yasuda’s wife Myu was appearing live on private station TV Asahi when Kono
announced the news.
“Thank you… Thank you for praying for him and taking action,” she said
in tears.
“I want to see him in good shape. That’s all I want,” Yasuda’s father had
told reporters earlier in the day.
“I don’t know how he is now, but I want to tell him he kept his chin up,”
he added.
Yasuda was thought to have been seized by the group previously known as
the Al-Nusra Front, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, in northern Syria.
However, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Al-Qaeda’s former branch in Syria,
denied any involvement in a statement Tuesday.
Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate was known as Al-Nusra Front before it
cut ties with the transnational jihadist network in 2016 and changed its
name.
In August, videos emerged showing Yasuda and an Italian national,
Alessandro Sandrini, appealing for their release.
Both men were wearing orange outfits with armed, masked men standing
behind them. The videos did not identify which group was holding the men or
include specific demands.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said
Tuesday that Yasuda was released under a Turkish-Qatari deal, with some
sources saying a ransom had been paid.
But Japan’s top government spokesman denied Wednesday any payment was
involved.
“That kind of thing never happened,” Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
In 2015, militants from the Islamic State group beheaded Japanese war
correspondent Kenji Goto and his friend Haruna Yukawa in Syria.
The Japanese government was criticised for what detractors saw as its
flat-footed response to the crisis at the time, including apparently missed
opportunities to free both men.
BSS/AFP/RY/1630 hrs