VICE News journalist released in Turkey after 131 days arrested

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

VICE News journalist and fixer Mohammed Rasool, who was arrested in southeastern Turkey 131 days ago, was finally released from jail on Jan. 5.

Lawyer Muhammed Neşet Girasun had demanded Rasool’s release, citing a lack of evidence for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the longevity of his arrest.

The court in the southern province of Adana then ruled for the release of Rasool on probation on Jan. 5. 

Rasool, along with two VICE News journalists Phil Pendlebury and Jake Hanrahan, was detained by Turkish police on charges of “assisting a terrorist organization” on Aug. 27. They had been reporting on clashes between police and members of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), the youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. 

Pendlebury and Hanrahan were later released, but Rasool was charged with “involvement in the hierarchical structure of an armed organization and assisting it.”