International Travel Ban on Wife of Late White Helmets’ Founder

* Photos: Anadolu Agency (AA) 

Click to read the article in Turkish

After James Le Mesurier, the founder of White Helmets operating in Syria and former MI6 officer, was found dead in front of his office in Beyoğlu, İstanbul on November 11, his wife Emma Hedvig Winber bore testimony at police station yesterday (November 13).

An international travel ban has been imposed on Winber until the investigation into the death of Le Mesurier is completed.

Arriving in the Police Department in Gayrettepe with a friend at around 1.30 p.m. yesterday, Winber stayed there for around three hours.

She was asked questions about electronic devices

Bearing testimony to the police, Emma Hedvig Christina Winber was asked a series of questions about 7 electronic devices, including PCs, tablets and mobile phones that were found at their house and seized for examination.

Winber reportedly said that the electronic devices in question were used by herself and her late husband.

Hospital records under inspection

While the police consider the incident to be a suicide, international community and NGOs are of the opinion that Le Mesurier was "killed intentionally" and request that the incident be investigated. The hospital records of Le Mesurier have also been taken under inspection.

The cleaning worker who was in the building at the time of incident and was staying in a detached part of the building also testified.

What happened?

• Founder of White Helmets and former MI6 (the UK's Secret Intelligence Service) officer 48-year-old James Gustaf Edward Le Mesurier was found dead near his house in the district of Beyoğlu in İstanbul in the morning on November 11.
• Speaking to Reuters, his neighbor and one diplomat said that the conditions pertaining to his death had not yet been clarified.
• Daily Sabah reported that after citizens who saw the body of Le Mesurier at the garden of the three-storey building in Kemankeş Neighborhood near British Consulate General called the police, it was understood that he had lost his life.
• In her testimony, the wife of Le Mesurier said that they were up until 4 a.m. on the day of incident, they slept after her husband took his medication, she did not see her husband by her side when their door was knocked at around 5.30 a.m. and when she looked outside the window, she saw her husband lying still on the ground.
• Fırat Bulut, a shopkeeper from Karaköy, spoke to İhlas News Agency (İHA) and said, "The friends heard sounds of quarrel at around 3 a.m. And his dead body was found in the morning. They were also our customers. It is really a sad event. They used to come to us to eat."

(PT/SD)