Rasool, who was arrested in August, is banned from leaving Turkey and must report to a local police station twice a week until the court announces a ruling in his case, according to astatement by VICE News.
“We are relieved that Mohammed Ismael Rasool is free on bail after spending 131 days in a high-security prison on trumped up terrorism charges,” said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney. “We urge Turkish authorities to drop all charges against him and allow him to travel and work freely.”
No date has been set yet for Rasool’s trial. The Iraqi journalist was arrested with VICE News journalists Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury on August 27, according to news reports. Hanrahan and Pendlebury were released a week later. Since his arrest CPJ, VICE News, and other international press freedom groups have advocated for Rasool’s release.
December 5 was Rasool’s hundredth day behind bars. He is seemingly no closer to being released, or even sent to trial, than he was when Phil and I had to leave him behind some 89 days ago. Rasool is caught in a state of limbo. Turkish authorities say they’re still investigating — an investigation that has gone on for one hundred days with no progress or end in sight. And things are getting worse.
One week ago today, our lead lawyer, Tahir Elci, was shot dead in Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey. He’d been giving a press conference in the Sur neighborhood, calling for peace between Turkey and the PKK. His last words before a bullet struck him in the head were, “We don’t want guns, clashes [or] operations in this region.”
Tahir was 49. He leaves behind a wife, a daughter, and a son. I watched his funeral on the television. One of his daughters, Nazenin, screamed “Bavo ez bimrim!” (Let me die dad!), as she walked with his coffin. Thousands of people walked behind her, all showing their respect for Tahir and his lifelong dedication to human rights.
This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.
A Molotov cocktail killed 16 at a restaurant in Cairo Friday morning.
Egypt is arresting lawyers for support of the Muslim Brotherhood. (Bonus quote: “’It is not logical that we would accuse him of inciting protests’ if he had not done so, the official said.”)
Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al Dine claimed an attack on a UN base in Mali that killed 3.
The Islamic State has between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters in Libya.
“We can observe today in Burundi a clear manipulation of ethnicity by both the government and opposition.”
Pope Francis visited a besieged mosque in the conflict-ravaged Central African Republic.
30 people are dead in clashes between rebels and government forces in the Congo.
Boko Haram destroyed a military base in northeastern Nigeria and 107 soldiers remain unaccounted for.
Western and Turkish officials are accusing Russia of overplaying the international incident and using it as an opportunity for an increased military presence on the Mediterranean.
Russia is moving its artillery to Syria’s front lines and expanding an air base in Homs.
How politics, not just survival, is driving the Syrian government’s military strategy.
Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate inside Syria, released 16 imprisoned Lebanese soldiers and police officers held captive since August 2014, in a deal brokered by Qatar.
The US is sending roughly 100 Special Operations Forces troops to Iraq to target the Islamic State. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has responded by saying the deployment was not requested and is considered a “hostile act.”
Iraqis widely believe the United States is partnered with the Islamic State for military gain in the Middle East, a sign of deep distrust.
A suicide bombing targeting Shi’ite pilgrims in Baghdad killed 9.
Doctors Without Borders says the Saudi coalition bombed one of their mobile clinics in Taiz, Yemen.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have seized Zinjibar, the capital of the Abyan province.
Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian has now spent more than 500 days detained in Iran.
The Taliban are strongly denying rumors that their new leader was wounded or killed in a shootout in Pakistan this week.
The CIA runs a shadow war in eastern Afghanistan, using the Khost Protection Force, a paramilitary unit linked to civilian killings, excessive force and torture, as its proxy.
Haji Ghalib, who spent four years in Guantánamo, now battles the Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan.
NATO will keep 12,000 troops in Afghanistan through 2016.
The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction has asked for a review of a former Pentagon task force’s use of funds, noting that they spent $150 million on private housing and security rather than live on a base.
Der Spiegelinterviews Afghan president Ashraf Ghani.
With politics potentially jeopardizing Russia’s place in the EU energy market, Moscow is turning to Pakistan in hopes of diversifying.
Russia is unlikely to meet the year-end deadline for a Ukraine peace deal.
In the face of Russian displeasure, NATO has invited Montenegro to join the alliance, its first expansion since 2009.
Armed clashes in Nardaran, a Shi’ite suburb of Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku, left seven people dead. Government authorities have conducted a security raid, searching homes and detaining residents.
Russia has begun building two military compounds on the Kuril islands, adding new complications to long-standing tensions with Japan over the status of those islands.
Japan is speeding up the launch of its new anti-terrorism unit.
Satellite imagery indicates that North Korea may be digging a nuclear test tunnel.
Irish police found a suspected dissident republican weapons dump near the border with Northern Ireland.
Colombia will not extradite a leftist rebel accused of drug trafficking to the US, a first, as it continues peace negotiations with FARC.
Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamiri, held in Guantánamo for 13 years now, was never a courier, the US now admits, but a low-level foot soldier.
The nearly five dozen people arrested in the US over the past year for supporting or plotting on behalf of the Islamic State are a diverse bunch, fitting no particular profile, a new study has concluded.
The Pentagon has ordered the military to open all remaining combat positions to women, without exception.
BuzzFeed profiles Sherri Goodman, the woman who got the Pentagon to care about climate change by framing it as a “threat multiplier.”
Photo: Arsal, eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. Al Nusra Front fighters raise their weapons in the backs of pickup trucks during the release of Lebanese soldiers and policemen. Stringer/Reuters.
This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.
Investigators are fairly certain a bomb was responsible for downing the Russian passenger jet in the Sinai.
Egyptian forces say they have killed the Islamic State’s provincial commander in the Sinai.
Leaked Emirati emails show that the UAE shipped weapons to some groups in Libya over the summer, violating an arms embargo. The information in the leaked emails threatens Libya’s already fragile and fractious peace process.
In Libya, the Islamic State looks to model on its successes in Iraq and Libya.
Italian police are investigating more than 30 suspects for trafficking weapons to Somalia and other African countries besieged by conflict.
Chad has declared a state of emergency in the Lake Chad region after a series of attacks by Boko Haram.
Boko Haram’s annual budget may be as much as $10 million.
A Boko Haram raid in Niger and an ensuing clash with security forces have left 25 dead.
A UN Security Council Resolution condemning killings in Burundi was unanimously approved, threatening the possibility of sanctions.
As Burundi’s violence threatens to develop into an all-out ethnic, regional conflict, the UN is less equipped to deal with such a situation than it was before the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Further sex abuse allegations have arisen against UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.
A UN peacekeeper was killed in a clash with the Seleka rebel group in the CAR.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced by fighting in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state.
Kenyan troops stationed in Somalia are involved in the smuggling of 150,000 tons of sugar back to Kenya every year.
11 Kurdish militants were killed in clashes with Turkish forces near the borders with Syria and Iraq.
Russia has accused the US of hijacking Syria talks.
The Pentagon targeted Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State militant more well-known as Jihadi John, in an airstrike. The US reports a “high degree of certainty” that he was killed in those strikes.
The US has increased its strikes against the Islamic State-controlled oil fields in eastern Syria.
Syrian government forces broke through a year-long Islamic State siege of Kweyris military airport in northern Aleppo.
This is the story of John Gallagher, the first Canadian volunteer to die fighting against the Islamic State.
Footage of the moment a Russian strike hit the Sarmin National Hospital in Idlib.
Dispatch from Syria: “The police are gone, and militias have flourished, snarling traffic with checkpoints and covering lampposts with pictures of dead fighters.”
Jerusalem’s youth population is caught up in a never-ending loop of retaliatory violence.
A gunman at a US-backed military training center in Jordan killed five people, including two American contractors.
A double suicide bombing in south Beirut left 43 people dead. The Islamic State has claimed the attack.
Saudi Arabia appears “trapped” in its war on the Houthis in Yemen, as rights groups call for full investigations of their actions.
War is ravaging Taiz, where the roots of Yemen’s protest movement began.
Gulf military powers are focusing on short-term/immediate needs in their defense procurements.
John Hamen, one of a pair of American contractors detained by Houthi forces in Yemen, has died.
Huge demonstrations were held in Kabul to protest the government’s failure to do more against militancy after seven Hazaras, including a young child, were found murdered.
The Afghan police say that a senior leader within a recent Taliban splinter group has been killed.
Rival Taliban factions are battling it out in southeastern Afghanistan.
Murod Juraev, a former opposition member in Uzbek Parliament, was freed after 21 years as a political prisoner.
Huge protests have brought parts of northern and eastern Sri Lanka to a standstill as many demand the release of more than 200 Tamil political prisoners.
Meanwhile, the US is looking for a win in its policy towards Sri Lanka now that President Maithripala Sirisena has taken power.
A new Amnesty International report says rights lawyers in China face routine abuses by law enforcement.
Four people died in a bombing at a village checkpoint in southern Thailand.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy party won by a landslide in Myanmar’s first free(ish) elections in a quarter century. This will be the first time since 1962 that the country is not led by the military.
Der Spiegel interviews former Russian opposition chief (and chess champion) Garry Kasparov.
Over the last year and a half, Ukraine has developed into one of Europe’s largest armies. Despite the expansion of the army and defense budget, the country’s special forces remain poorly trained and under-equipped.
Eastern Ukraine remains stuck in a state of pseudo-war.
Russia says the televised leak of the design for a drone submarine that could attack coastlines with nuclear weapons was accidental.
Photo: Douma neighborhood of Damascus. A man runs with an injured girl in his arms after an airstrike carried out by forces allied with President Bashar al-Assad. Bassam Khabieh/Reuters.
Today, for two hours, all of our digital channels went dark to protest this unjust treatment. In response, we’ve seen people and media organizations from around the world come together as one to call for Rasool’s release and advocate for global press freedom. We at VICE want to thank all of you for your support and commitment to this fight.
The #FreeRasool hashtag trended globally in New York City, London, DC, and—most importantly—Turkey. In that short time, we also received over 8,000 signatures on our Change.org petition imploring the Turkish government to do the right thing and grant Mohammed Rasool his freedom.
Your help means a lot to us, but the fight isn’t over yet. Please continue to tweet your support and share the Free Rasool petition. Let’s make sure Turkey gets the message that we, as an international community, will not relent until Rasool is out from behind bars.
