Off the wire
• Citigroup to delist from Tokyo Stock Exchange  • Miranda Kerr set to marry Snapchat's founder Evan Spiegel  • U.S. navy to return to New Zealand first time in three decades  • Panama establishes truth commission into 1989 U.S. invasion  • Central bank injects 10 bln yuan into market  • Brazilian gov't to send labor reform plan to Congress this year  • Fire at former brewery in Moscow contained  • Albania sees robust agricultural growth in first half of 2016  • Backgrounder: How U.S. drone strikes kill innocent civilians?  • Myanmar warns of destroying over 3-month frozen chickens  
You are here: 　 Home

Australian authorities charge Kurdish journalist with links to terror group

Xinhua, July 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australian authorities has arrested a journalist charged with being a member of a Turkish terror group the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

The Australian government listed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization despite it was active in the fight against Islamic State in Syria. Turkish authorities also claimed the separatist PKK have mounted attacks inside Turkey.

Renas Lelikan, 38, was arrested on Sydney's northern beaches late Wednesday after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) allegedly found evidence linking him to the group.

At a bail hearing in a Sydney court on Thursday, an AFP police prosecutor said they had found over 2,000 emails with attached photos during the raids.

"A lot of the material is in Turkish and needs to be translated," said the prosecutor, who declined to be identified.

Australia, a staunch ally of the United States in their fight against Islamic State, has held concerns over Lelikan after he was denied an Australian passport on national security grounds last year. He was later given a temporary travel document to return to Australia in last October after being trapped in an Iraqi refugee camp for nine months, ABC reported.

The Australian government forbid any Australian traveling to war zones without special permission, and those who do and join either side of the conflict face harsh penalties.

Under controversial foreign fighter laws, any duel national will have their Australian citizenship revoked if they are alleged to be a member of an organization listed on Australia's official terror group watch list. Single nationality Australians face a potential imprisonment of 10 years.

Lelikan maintained his innocence and that he was "not a threat" after being questioned by authorities for over 10 hours.

"My whole life I have never felt sorry (for what I did). It was right. I never did anything against our Australian government," Lelikan told the ABC at the time.

"Wherever I went I did my job as a journalist," he said. Endit