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Jumpei Yasuda should quickly return to Japan after medical examinations. Huseyin BOZOK / DHA / AFP
Hostage for more than three years in Syria, the Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda has been released. He was abducted near Idleb in 2015.
He wears a beard, his black hair has turned gray and dark circles under his face. Jumpei Yasuda pronounces his first words as a free man after three years of hell: " My name is Jumpei Yasuda. I am a Japanese journalist. I was detained in Syria for 40 months. Today, I am in Turkey, I am safe. "
In June 2015, he entered Syria to cover the war between the army and rebel groups. On June 20, he wrote on his Twitter account that he has more and more trouble working and that the situation becomes too dangerous. Three days later, he gives no more news.
He reappears only nine months later, in a video posted on the internet, where he addresses his family and asks Japan to act for his release. It is not known for the moment who took the journalist hostage. The jihadists of the former al-Nusra Front assure that they are not responsible.
The Japanese Prime Minister took pains to thank Qatar and Turkey, who played the intermediaries. Impossible to say if a ransom was paid. Already in 2004, Yasuda had already been captured in Iraq, where he had spent three days in the hands of an armed group.