Turkey deports Dutch reporter with alleged ties to Al-Qaeda group
The CPJ says Turkey is the world’s leading jailer of journalists, saying at the end of 2018 that at least 68 were jailed for their work there
Istanbul/Amsterdam — Turkey says it deported a reporter for Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad on Thursday, after receiving intelligence from the Netherlands that she had ties to Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. The deportation of Johanna Cornelia Boersma was a precautionary measure after the Netherlands informed Turkey of her alleged links to the Islamist extremist group, Fahrettin Altun, communications director for the Turkish presidency, said on his Twitter account. Boersma had received an official press permit from the Turkish government last week, and was apprehended during a visit to immigration services in Istanbul to renew her residence permit on Wednesday, her newspaper reported on Thursday. Boersma and the paper will fight the deportation from the Netherlands, it said. “Rest assured that Ms Boersma’s deportation was in no way related to her journalistic activities during her stay in Turkey,” Altun said in an earlier e-mailed statement. “If a credible fo...
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