Japan confirms the identity of a journalist released from Syria

TOKYO – A Japanese freelance journalist released after more than three years of captivity in Syria said Wednesday that he was safe in neighboring Turkey.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said representatives of Japan's embassy met with the journalist, Jumpei Yasuda, at an immigration center in southern Turkey near the border. Syrian border.

"We are extremely pleased to have confirmed the safety of Mr. Jumpei Yasuda," Kono told reporters.

Yasuda was kidnapped in 2015 by the al Qaeda branch in Syria, known at the time as Front Nusra, after losing contact with him in June of the same year. A war watchdog said it was recently detained by a Syrian commander of the Islamic Party of Turkistan, composed mainly of Chinese jihadists in Syria.

"I'm calling Jumpei Yasuda, a Japanese journalist. I was detained in Syria for 40 months, "Yasuda said with a bit of reluctance in English in video commentary recorded by Japanese public television NHK. "Now I am in Turkey. Now I am safe. Thank you so much."

NHK said the video had been shot inside the immigration center and had been made public by the local government of the Turkish province of Hatay.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "Everything is done to return the journalist to his country", but would not provide any information on the transfer.

The news of Yasuda's release was announced belatedly by Qatar, which helped his release alongside Turkey and other countries in the region, said the secretary general of the Japanese Cabinet, Yoshihide Suga.

Asked if a ransom had been paid, Suga replied, "There is no fact that the ransom money has been paid."

Yasuda's parents said earlier that they were eager to see their son go home.

"I was only praying for his safe return," his 75-year-old mother Sachiko Yasuda told NHK on the Japanese public television, as she and her husband stood in front of their home, outside of their home. Tokyo, holding an origami ornament had added everyday for three years.

Yasuda began reporting on the Middle East in the early 2000s. Taken hostage in Iraq in 2004 along with three other Japanese, he was released after Islamic clerics had negotiated his release.

His latest work in Syria was on his friend Kenji Goto, a Japanese journalist who was taken hostage and killed by the Islamic State group.

The contact was lost with Yasuda after sending a message to another Japanese freelancer on June 23, 2015. In his latest tweet two days earlier, Yasuda said his reports were often clogged and that he would stop tweeting on his place and his activities.

Several videos showing a man suspected of being Yasuda have been released over the past year.

In a video released in July, a bearded man suspected of being Yasuda said he was in a hostile environment and needed to be rescued immediately.

Syria is one of the most dangerous places for journalists since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011, with dozens of deaths or kidnappings.

Several journalists are still missing in Syria and their fate is unknown.

Among the missing is Austin Tice, of Houston, Texas, who disappeared in August 2012 while covering the conflict that claimed the lives of some 400,000 people. A video released a month later showed him blindfolded and held by gunmen saying, "Oh, Jesus." He has not heard from him since.

Tice is a former sailor who has worked for the Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, CBS and other media. He disappeared shortly after his 31st birthday.

British photojournalist John Cantlie, who appeared in the Islamic State's propaganda videos, is another example. Cantlie has worked for several publications, including The Sunday Times, The Sun and The Sunday Telegraph. He was kidnapped by American journalist James Foley in November 2012. The IS has beheaded Foley in August 2014.

Lebanese journalist Samir Kassab, who worked for Sky News, was kidnapped on October 14, 2013, accompanied by a Mauritanian colleague, Ishak Moctar, and a Syrian driver on a trip to the north. from Syria.

In March 2014, two Spanish journalists – correspondent Javier Espinosa and photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova – were released six months after being abducted by a group linked to al-Qaida.

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Associated press reporter Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

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