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French photoreporter freed and deported from Turkey

French freelance photoreporter Mathias Depardon was to arrive in France on Friday evening after being held in a Turkish jail for a month.

Material for Reporters Without Borders campaign for Mathias Depardon's release
Material for Reporters Without Borders campaign for Mathias Depardon's release ©RSF
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Depardon, 37, was deported by Turkish authorities on Froday, following a campaign for his release.

"I am happy to anounce the return to France this evening of our compatriot photojournalist @mathiasdepardon," President Emmanuel Macron announced in a tweet on Friday afternoon. 

Depardon had been held in a detention centre at Gaziantep, on the border with Syria, since 8 May, when he was arrested in the south-eastern town of Hasankeyf, where he was working on an assigment for National Geographic magazine.

He had been living in Turkey for several years.

An order to deport him was issued on 11 May but he was kept in detention on suspicion of making "terrorist propaganda" in favour of separatist Kurdish guerrillas.

Reporters Without Borders, which campaigned for his release, declared itself "greatly relieved"  by his release.
 

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