Turkey jails Briton for serving in Syria with Kurdish militia
A Turkish court sentenced a former British soldier to seven-and-a half-years in jail for links to a Kurdish militia that Ankara considers a terrorist group.
Joe Robinson was arrested in July last year while holidaying in Turkey after he posted photos of himself in camouflage and posing next to fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria.
A court in the western city of Aydin sentenced him for “membership of a terrorist organisation”, the private DHA news agency said.
The YPG is an ally of the United States in the fight against ISIS in Syria. But Ankara is hostile to the YPG because of its links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We have been following this case very closely and have raised it with the Turkish authorities. We are ready to provide further assistance.”
Robinson did not attend the trial for health reasons, DHA said. He is on bail and planning an appeal.
His Bulgarian fiancee, arrested with him, was given a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentenced for “terrorist propaganda”. She is in Britain studying law at the University of Leeds, the BBC reported.
According to British press reports, Robinson, 25, is a former soldier who served in Afghanistan in 2012 and went to Syria in 2015 for five months to work in the YPG’s health unit.