A year after the arrest of journalist Alan Salim Ahmed, correspondent of Yekiti Media

Yekiti Media

On Tuesday, 15-8-2017, had been a year of arrest of Alan Salim Ahmed, the correspondent of the Yekiti Media website, Alan Salim Ahmed, was arrested by Asayish of Democratic Union Party (PYD) after covering the funeral of the martyr Peshmerga Habib Qadri, who was killed in a battle against the terrorist organisation (ISIS).

Conditions of detention:

Alan Salim Ahmed was arrested along with Hassan Saleh and Abdullah Kaddo, leaders of Kurdish Yekiti party, (P.Y.K.S) and Farhan Hasan, a member of the same party, after they were being stopped by a patrol of the Asayish. The patrol immediately transferred them to a center of Asayish in the Corniche district. This was confirmed by Engineer Farhan, who added that Alan did not stay with them in the cell for more than an hour before they called him and transferred him to an unknown destination.

Alan`s family, who met him more than two months later, said that their detainee son, told them that he had been transferred after hours to a solitary cell in Cherkin prison, where he spent 63 days without being seen the light.

Alan’s disappearance and attempts to reveal his fate.
All detainees, who was arrested on 15 -16 of August had been known their fate and their place of detention except Alan, who was the youngest. Asayish leaders did not disclose his place of detention to his family despite their review several times and from many of centers of the Asayish, but to no avail.

24-10-2016 was the last glimmer of hope for family of Alain after he was identified by some of the detainees during his transfer to the Public Prosecutor’s Office which belong to the People’s Protection Court of the Democratic Unionist Party (PYD) in Navkuri, west of the city of Qamishlo. And allowed his family to visit him two weeks later.

Sentence him on false and fake charges:
The Asayish released the last detainees batch of August 2016 arrest campaign, six months after the start of it , except the journalist (Alan Salim Ahmad), the correspondent of Yekiti Media website, to remain alone after being informed by the prison administration that he was sentenced to a year of imprisonment. As confirmed by Salim Ahmed (Alan`s father) who added that false charges had been filed by the PYD court and Alan was sentenced to one year.

Alan’s arrest in highlights:

1. On 15 October 2016, the General Secretariat of the Kurdish National Council issued a statement demanding the release of the journalist Alan and a number of other detainees (later released). In his statement, the Council described the practices of the Democratic Union Party as intimidating and irresponsible.

2. The Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria, October 24, 2016, confirmed that the fate of the journalist Alan is still unknown at a press conference held at the Party headquarters in Qamishlo City.

3. Salim Ahmed, the father of the journalist Alan on October 30, 2016, expressed his fears over the uncertainty surrounding the disappearance of his son in the Democratic Union Party detention camps. He said that his fears increased after his recent visit to the General Center for Asayish And not to disclose his whereabouts, and not to allow visits under the pretext of investigations, which no longer ends as he described.

4. Alan`s father confirmed at 11 March 2017 that his son had told him that a military court in of Navkuri of Democratic Union Party had sentenced him to one year in prison on charges of working without a permision.

5. The Executive Office of the Union of Syrian Kurdish Journalists issued a comprehensive annual report on 11 January, in which documented,18 cases of violation of the killing, beating, abduction and continuous and temporary detention, including the arbitrary detention of the journalist Alan And his detention is forced by the administration of the Democratic Union Party, noting that his fate is still unknown.

6 – The newspaper Ronahi published in its print number 383 false confessions attributed to Alan entitled “Yekiti Media intelligence site in an Media tone.” Yekiti Media Administration issued a statement on 10 April 2017 on the lies and fabrications of the Democratic Union Party.

7. On 7 February 2017, the Yekiti Media website issued a statement condemning the continued forced detention of Alan, after the release of a group of political prisoners and activists from the Democratic Unionist Party prisons.

8. The management of Yekiti Media has prepared a full report on the circumstances and details of the arrest of journalist Alan Salim Ahmed and handed over to CPJ, Reporters Without Borders and other organizations interested in the press.

It is worth mentioning that Alan Salim Ahmed was born in Qamishlo in 1994. He holds a certificate from the Petroleum Institute in Rumailan City and was a student in the first year at the Faculty of Law (Al-Furat University). He worked as a correspondent for Yekiti Media website in Qamishlo before his arrest.