(TOKYO) — A man believed to be a Japanese freelance journalist who disappeared three years ago in Syria has been released and is now in Turkey, a Japanese official said.
The man is being protected by Turkish authorities in Antakya near Turkey’s border with Syria and is being identified but he most likely is journalist Jumpei Yasuda, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a hastily arranged news conference late Tuesday.
Suga said Japan’s government was informed by Qatar of the man’s release and has notified Yasuda’s family and sent embassy officials to the man’s location. The man released is mentally stable and in good health, Kyodo News agency reported.
Yasuda was kidnapped in 2015 by al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, known at the time as Nusra Front.
Nusra Front later became known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or Levant Liberation Committee. The group handed Yasuda over to the Turkistan Islamic Party, which mostly comprises Chinese jihadis based in Syria, according to Rami Abdurrahma..