Joe Robinson, 25, was arrested and charged with terrorism offenses while on holiday in Turkey last year. He was accused of being a member of the YPG, a Kurdish armed group classed as a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government.
I feel sorry for this guy and his girlfriend.
Not smart to take a hol in Turkey after fighting for #YPG, any other place would have been fine. Never Turkey though. https://t.co/LSHj1OHCBR— AnzacPearls (@AnzacPearls) September 15, 2018
Robinson, from Leeds, previously served in Afghanistan under the British Armed Forces. He denied the charges against him in November 2017, saying that he had been working in Syria as a medic.
The People’s Protection Units of Syrian Kurdistan (YPG) is a predominantly Kurdish militia in Syria, fighting against ISIS and other Syrian rebel groups. Turkey has previously criticized the YPG for its alleged support of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an organisation fighting for an independent Kurdish state in Turkey. UK law doesn’t currently class the YPG as a banned group.
@Jeremy_Hunt @AlistairBurtUK @FCOHumanRights @foreignoffice
British foreign office must use its contacts to #FreeJoeRobinson and bring him back to the UK.— Bavil Ahmad (@bavilahmad) September 15, 2018
Robinson was arrested alongside his mother and fiancée in 2017. The women were later released. His fiancée, Mira Rojkan, a Law student at the University of Leeds, had been given a suspended sentence for “terrorism propaganda”, according to Robinson’s mother Sharon Chimejczuk. Rojkan said that she had been sentenced for sharing ‘Pro-Kurdish’ material on social media.
Robinson was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail, but remains on bail. He plans to appeal his conviction.
Megan Cummings
Image: [@joerobinson3214, Twitter]