IDLIB, Syria (AP) — A local journalist in rebel-held northwestern Syria who works with international news agencies was arrested by Turkish-backed authorities, his wife and rights groups said Tuesday.
Journalists and activists called Bakr Qassim’s arrest part of an ongoing crackdown on them. Local authorities did not immediately comment.
Qassim, who has reported and taken photos for French news agency Agence France-Presse and Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, was arrested Monday afternoon in al-Bab city in northern Aleppo province as he and his wife finished work.
Britain-based opposition monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said he was dragged and beaten while asking the reason for his arrest. It said he was presented with “a number of charges, including preparing press reports for several parties.”
His wife, Nabiha Taha, and the opposition monitor said he was held by Turkish-backed authorities in Hawar Kilis village along the border with Turkey.
Local military police held Taha for two hours before she was released following protests from journalists and residents, she said in a video. Taha said Qassim was taken to another location and his current circumstances were unknown.
“We call on the local authorities in northern Syria to immediately release our correspondent Bakr Qassim and allow him to resume his work freely,” AFP editor-in-chief Sophie Huet said in a statement.
Journalists and activists in northwestern Syria said they would stage a protest later Tuesday calling for the release of Qassim and other journalists and activists they say are arbitrarily detained. They also call for the release of activist Karam Kellieh, who was arrested two months ago and whose whereabouts remain unknown.
Northwestern Syria is the last rebel bastion in the war-torn country. Idlib province is under the formerly al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and northern Aleppo province is under Turkish-backed forces.
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Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.