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| Vice News journalist: Turkey arrest one of my most traumatic experiences ever | Vice News journalist: Turkey arrest one of my most traumatic experiences ever |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Vice News journalist Jake Hanrahan has described his incarceration in a Turkish prison on terror charges as “one of the most traumatic experiences of my life”. | Vice News journalist Jake Hanrahan has described his incarceration in a Turkish prison on terror charges as “one of the most traumatic experiences of my life”. |
| Hanrahan, cameraman Philip Pendlebury and their Turkey-based colleague Mohammed Rasool, were arrested and put in a high-security prison after filming clashes between police and youth members of the pro-Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) on 27 August. | |
| “As we were driving back to the hotel about 20 police officers just jumped off the steps, just swarmed the car,” he said, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday in his first public statement on the situation since arriving back in the UK on Sunday. “They took us in, searched our rooms and said ‘you have been arrested for terror offences’. And that night we were taken and put in solitary cells.” | “As we were driving back to the hotel about 20 police officers just jumped off the steps, just swarmed the car,” he said, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday in his first public statement on the situation since arriving back in the UK on Sunday. “They took us in, searched our rooms and said ‘you have been arrested for terror offences’. And that night we were taken and put in solitary cells.” |
| While Hanrahan and Pendlebury were released last Thursday, their translator and fixer Rasool remains in prison. | While Hanrahan and Pendlebury were released last Thursday, their translator and fixer Rasool remains in prison. |
| “I do remember one snippet of information from the police that they said to Rasool,” said Hanrahan. “He said basically they saw two English people with an Iraqi and that was basically enough for them to come up with these charges. It’s one of them most traumatic experiences of our lives, which is why it is incredibly important we get Rasool out. He’s innocent.” | “I do remember one snippet of information from the police that they said to Rasool,” said Hanrahan. “He said basically they saw two English people with an Iraqi and that was basically enough for them to come up with these charges. It’s one of them most traumatic experiences of our lives, which is why it is incredibly important we get Rasool out. He’s innocent.” |
| Related: Vice News journalists back in UK after release from Turkish prison | Related: Vice News journalists back in UK after release from Turkish prison |
| Hanrahan saidthe biggest burden he felt was leaving Rasool behind and not so far managing to secure his release. | Hanrahan saidthe biggest burden he felt was leaving Rasool behind and not so far managing to secure his release. |
| “It is not a question of the two western journalists are free and they leave a guy behind,” he said. “The biggest burden is that our friend and colleague is still in prison. That is the worst possible thing for us. Any trauma will have to wait.” | “It is not a question of the two western journalists are free and they leave a guy behind,” he said. “The biggest burden is that our friend and colleague is still in prison. That is the worst possible thing for us. Any trauma will have to wait.” |
| Hanrahan said the prison conditions during his 11 days incarceration were poor but that their situation was helped by sympathetic guards. | Hanrahan said the prison conditions during his 11 days incarceration were poor but that their situation was helped by sympathetic guards. |
| “It could have been much worse,” he said. “The guards were quite sympathetic towards us, they understood we were innocent. | |
| “We were treated as well as can be expected in a foreign prison. It’s prison. Turkish prison. We had food. The situation is no less severe now than when we were inside. We feel a massive responsibility. Our friend is still out there. Vice News is doing everything they can.” | |
| Radio 4 reporter Sima Kotecha pressed Hanrahan several times on whether the journalists in some way “invited” trouble, given the area they were filming is known to be extremely dangerous. | Radio 4 reporter Sima Kotecha pressed Hanrahan several times on whether the journalists in some way “invited” trouble, given the area they were filming is known to be extremely dangerous. |
| “We took great means to be extremely careful because we knew the situation, what could happen,” he said. | |
| “Logically, as a journalist, sometimes you have to get in touch with people who are not good people of course. We wanted to cover the conflict, we thought it was very important. You can’t stay away from something because of the possibility that something bad might happen to you or journalists wouldn’t do anything. We didn’t just want to do it from the desk.” |
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