(AP) 24 August 2010
ANKARA, Turkey — A lawyer says an American detained for allegedly collaborating with Kurdish militants has been deported to the United States.
Lawyer Serkan Akbas says his client, Jake Hess, was deported on Aug. 20 after Turkish authorities speeded up the lengthy process.
The 25-year old Hess, of Hampton, New Hampshire, was detained in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on Aug. 11.
Authorities said Hess was detained because his name appears in a prosecutor’s indictment against Kurdish activists charged with links to Kurdish rebels.
Hess maintained he was targeted because of his writings critical of Turkish treatment of Kurds for Inter Press Service, a Rome-based agency that covers poverty and other issues in developing nations.