Freed Japanese journalist ‘safe’

A JAPANESE freelance journalist who was freed after more than three years of captivity in Syria said yesterday he was safe in neighbouring Turkey.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Japanese Embassy officials met the journalist, Jumpei Yasuda, at an immigration centre in southern Turkey near the border with Syria.

“We are extremely pleased that we have confirmed the safety of Mr Jumpei Yasuda,” Kono told reporters.

Jumpei was kidnapped in 2015 by al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, known at the time as the Nusra Front, after contact with him was lost in June that year. A war-monitoring group said he was most recently held by a Syrian commander with the Turkistan Islamic Party, which mostly comprised Chinese jihadis in Syria.

“My name is Jumpei Yasuda, Japanese journalist. I have been held in Syria for 40 months,” Jumpei said, somewhat haltingly, in English broadcast by Japan’s NHK television. “Now I am in Turkey. Now I am in safe condition. Thank you very much.”

News of his release came late on Tuesday from Qatar, which helped in obtaining his freedom along with Turkey and other countries in the region, Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said.

Asked if any ransom was paid, Yoshihide said “there is no fact that ransom money was paid”.

Jumpei’s wife, a singer who goes by the name Myu, was on a live talk show on Japanese television and shed tears when she heard her husband was safe.