afrinpost– Exclusive
Turkish intelligence has allegedly kidnapped a Kurdish woman and her four children, originally from Afrin, Syria, in Istanbul over three months ago. The operation aims to pressure the woman’s brother, who lives in the Shahba region, to work for Turkish intelligence and provide information on Kurdish forces in northern Aleppo.
Kurdish lawyer Hussein Naso revealed the incident on his Facebook page, stating that Dijla Jamal Bakr, born on January 1, 1993, and her children have been missing for more than three months. Turkish intelligence refused to disclose their whereabouts unless the woman’s brother agreed to work for them.
According to the lawyer, the woman’s husband, Idris Musa, fled to Istanbul five years ago, seeking work due to the destruction and devastation in Syria. A year ago, he brought his family, ( his wife “Dijla Jamal Bakr” and his children “Maria” born on 8/17/2011, “Marwan” born on 9/7/2013, “Muhammad Ali” born on 6/20/2015, and Mira born on 28/28 /2/2021).
In 2022, Idris left for Europe, and two months after settling in Austria, Turkish intelligence arrested his wife and children and took them to Istanbul.
After seeking help from a lawyer to locate his family, Idris learned that they were being held by Turkish intelligence and may be deported to Syria. The lawyer tried to find the family but failed to obtain any information on their whereabouts.
The lawyer informed Idris that there was nothing incriminating against his family, but they would be deported to Syria after being taken to Urfa, a place for residence permit registration. After days passed without any news from the family, the lawyer tried to search for them but failed to obtain any information that would lead to their whereabouts. He confirmed that they did not leave Turkish territory, as their names were not on the list of departures at the borders.
Days later, the man received a message on his wife’s phone in Kurdish, stating that there were parties who wanted to communicate with him. A Turkish intelligence officer called him days later, accompanied by an Arabic translator, and informed him that his family was in their custody and ready to be left in Istanbul or Syria, but under one condition; “that he intermediates for us with his brother-in-law, named M.J.B, who is located in al-Shahba area, and convinces him to work with us and for our benefit”. In other words, he should recruit him on behalf of the Turkish intelligence in order to provide them with information about Kurdish movements there, or else his family would not be seen again.
When the man refused their demands because there had been no communication between him and his brother-in-law for years, they cut the line. Days later, the Turkish intelligence forced the wife to speak to her husband, Idris, in an attempt to persuade him to intervene with her brother for the sake of Turkish intelligence. Days later, a voice recording was sent from the wife’s phone, pleading with her brother to fulfill the demands of the kidnappers to save her and her children. When they did not reach their destination, their whereabouts remained unknown until a woman contacted Idris via Messenger, claiming to have been in the same prison as his family with Turkish intelligence in Kilis, and that his wife and children were fine.
Since then, the family’s news has been cut off, and their fate remains unknown, despite nearly three months having passed since their abduction.
The lawyer stated from a legal standpoint that “the principle of criminal legitimacy, which is one of the pillars of criminal legislation, stipulates that there is no crime or punishment except by text, which means that crimes and punishments are limited to what is written in the law and making it the only source of criminalization and punishment. Thus, an act cannot be criminalized unless the law has criminalized it, and no punishment can be imposed without what the law has stipulated. In addition, the punishment must be personal and should only apply to the person who has been proven to be involved in a crime.”
The lawyer referred to the fact that the evidence and audio recordings proving the kidnapping incident by the Turkish Intelligence are in their possession.
He ended his statement with a plea on behalf of the husband to human rights, civil, and media organizations to assist him in exerting pressure on the Turkish authorities to reveal the fate of the family and release them.
