During the first week of August, Lindsey Snell, an American journalist was arrested and imprisoned by Turkish authorities and now the U.S. State Department has confirmed her detention. Regarding her capture, the Daily Sabah (an Erdogan family ran media outlet) stated the following:
Turkish authorities arrested and imprisoned U.S. citizen, Lindsey Snell (Sabah refers to her name as ‘Snell Lindsteyler’) who stands accused of crossing the border into Turkey illegally. On August 5, 2016, the United States mobilized a team to extract Ms. Snell, who was subsequently wounded in Syria (it is speculated that her injuries were sustained from her time in an Al Nusra prison where she ultimately escaped on August 5, 2016). The United States Consul General, Linda Stuart Specht, requested assistance in rescuing Ms. Snell from the Hatay (Turkey) governor’s office and evacuate her to Incirlik Air Base. The U.S. Consul General’s request for assistance to rescue and evacuate Ms. Snell included several U.S. aircraft, manned and unmanned, who searched for Ms. Snell to no avail. A Turkish soldier on the border of Syria noticed movement on the border region where a wounded Ms. Snell revealed herself and placed her hands above her head and was taken into police custody immediately. A Turkish prosecutor reported that Ms. Snell attempted to cross the border illegally and she was convicted of entering a Turkish military zone only a few hours later.
Ms. Snell’s harrowing ordeal started in an Al Nusra prison in Syria where she escaped with the aid of a man on a motorcycle (according to her tweet). Today, the U.S. State Department has officially recognized that Ms. Lindsey Snell is in fact being detained in a Turkish prison and has been for the last month. She was imprisoned for “violating a military zone” and is currently being held in Turkey’s Hatay province prison. Any negotiation for her release is unknown at this time.
[revad2]
