Freedom for kurdish journalist Ahmet Polad! -info

As the “International Coordination in Solidarity with Political Prisoners,” we demand the immediate
release of Kurdish journalist and political prisoner Ahmet Polad (Mehmet Nîzam Aslan), who has been
in the custody of the Syrian transitional government for more than 200 days.
In January of this year, HTS forces and the Syrian transitional government launched an operation against
the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava). During this operation, on January
18/19, 2026, two journalists – Eva Maria Michelmann and Ahmet Polad, who were reporting on the
current developments in Rojava – were abducted and held in Syrian imprisonment for nearly 90 days
without being registered. There was no contact with either of them, nor were their whereabouts known.
There was no clarity whether they were even still alive. Thanks to public pressure from their family
members, the initiative “Where are Eva and Ahmet?”, the family’s lawyer Roland Meister, as well as
journalists, human rights activists, politicians and people in solidarity in Europe and Rojava, it was
eventually possible to locate the two and have their whereabouts officially confirmed by the Syrian
transitional government.
Pressure on the German government proved successful: on June 19, German citizen Eva Maria
Michelmann was released and welcomed back to Germany. She had been detained for more than 150
days and, upon her return, reported various methods of torture – electric shocks, beatings and isolation.
However, Kurdish journalist Ahmet Polad remains in captivity. He is also being held in solitary
confinement, even incommunicado detention, meaning that he has not been granted access to legal
counsel and there is no current information about his state of health. The Syrian authorities are refusing
to accept a power of attorney because they do not want to admit that Ahmet is in their custody. In this
way, the Syrian transitional government is attempting to make a journalist disappear. This is despite the
fact that a former prisoner was able to testify that Ahmet is being held captive and that, in mid-April, he
had injuries to his hand and abdomen which he did not have at the time of his capture.
Ahmet’s situation is particularly precarious because he also holds Turkish citizenship. His life is at risk
both in Syrian detention and in the event of deportation to Turkey, where he will be criminalized because
of his identity as a Kurdish journalist. His detention is not only an attack on press freedom and a violation
of international protections for journalists; it also exposes the true face of the Syrian transitional
government and its president, Al-Jolani. However, the abductions of Ahmet Polad and Eva Maria
Michelmann are not isolated incidents. Hundreds of people were abducted during the operation in
January and have remained missing without a trace to this day. We demand clarification of the fate of
all those unlawfully abducted and detained in Syria, and their release!
As an international coordination fighting for political prisoners, we furthermore demand an immediate
investigation, an end to solitary confinement, and freedom for Ahmet Polad! The detention of a
journalist whose mission is to expose current developments, to bring the perspectives and voices of the
oppressed to light and make them heard around the world, must end! Neither the struggle for a free
Kurdistan nor journalistic activities may constitute grounds for criminalization!
Freedom for Ahmet!
Freedom for all imprisoned journalist