VICE News is pleased to confirm its reporter, Mohammed Rasool, has been released having been held in a Turkish prison for 131 days.
— VICE News (@vicenews) January 5, 2016
This story was originally published on September 3, 2015 at 12:00 p.m.
Two Vice News journalists have been freed from jail in Turkey after being arrested on charges that they were "deliberately aiding an armed organization." Their Turkey-based Iraqi fixer, Mohammed Ismael Rasool, remains in jail after his appeal for release was denied on Thursday, lawyers for the journalists told Al Jazeera English. Authorities allege Rasool was using an encryption software that is also used by the Islamic State group — a charge both he and Vice News deny, his lawyer told Al Jazeera. "Rasool is an experienced journalist and translator who has worked extensively across the Middle East with Vice News, the Associated Press, and Al Jazeera," Vice News' Jake Goldman told Refinery29 in a statement. "We call on the Turkish authorities for a swift end to this unjust detainment and to grant his immediate release." Authorities arrested correspondent Jake Hanrahan, cameraman Philip Pendlebury, Rasool, and their driver on August 27 in Diyarbakir, a city in southeast Turkey. The Guardian reports that an anonymous caller alleged the reporters were "working with the Islamic State" group, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Their driver was later released without being charged. Vice News said Hanrahan, Pendlebury, and Rasool were in Diyarbakir covering the conflict between government forces and the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, a subset of Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The day before his arrest, Hanrahan tweeted about his work.
Scenes from Cizre, SE Turkey, where YDG-H claim self rule amidst the conflict between PKK & Turkish state @vicenews pic.twitter.com/cr0H8vRifr
— Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) August 26, 2015
Keep shouting for us my colleagues I'm sorry.
from now on will not be able to keep in touch with you #FreeAJStaff
— Baher Mohamed (@Bahrooz) August 29, 2015
If I am sent to Tora's lifeless dungeons-I know my lawyer Amal Clooney & my wife will fight fiercely for my release pic.twitter.com/8VPrXl5dQs
— Mohamed Fadel Fahmy (@MFFahmy11) August 29, 2015
First day at school while their father behind bars #freeajstaff #journalismisnotacrime pic.twitter.com/0HI1AZxk7M
— Baher Mohamed (@Bahrooz) September 2, 2015