Journalist From France Arrested in Şırnak

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Loup Bureau, a journalist from France who was taken into custody on July 26 at Habur Border Gate near Silopi district of Şırnak in southeastern Turkey while crossing the border from Iraq to Turkey, has been arrested.

Bureau was referred to court following the procedures at the police department and testified before the Prosecutor's Office. The court ruled after his interrogation, that Bureau be arrested on charge of "aiding and abetting a terrorist organization". He was sent to Şırnak T - type Prison later.

On his Twitter account there is information that he is a journalism student, learns Arabic and reports for TV5Monde, ArteJournal and Slate.

According to the information bianet could acquire, Bureau had gone to Erbil to work as a journalist. He had planned to cross the Habur Border through official channels with his passport to İzmir first and later to İstanbul for vacation. He wanted to return to his country subsequently.

According to the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), interviews and photographs of these interviews he had made with members of Democratic Union Party/People's Protection Units (PYD/YPG) in Syria were found on him.

Bianet Media Monitoring Report shows that 136 journalists were behind bars as of July 2017. (NV/DG)