Turkey arrests 3 suspects over killing of Syrian opposition activist

Three suspects have been arrested over the killing of a Syrian opposition filmmaker and activist in Turkey.

Turkish authorities arrested three people over the death of a Syrian filmmaker who was assassinated in southern Turkey after producing anti-Islamic State (IS) documentaries, the state media said Sunday. 

Naji Jerf was shot dead in broad daylight in Gaziantep province late December by assailants using a silencer outside a building that houses Syrian opposition news outlets.  

A court in Gaziantep remanded in custody pending trial one suspect and his two accomplices, the official Anatolia news agency said. There were no other details on their identity. 

Jerf was the editor-in-chief of a Syrian magazine, Hentah, and had recently directed and produced a documentary about the killing of Syrian activists by IS. 

He was also an activist in Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a group of citizen journalists who work to expose human rights abuses in Raqqa (also spelt Raqa), the northeastern city that IS uses as its de-facto capital in Syria.

This is not the first time a Syrian opposition figure has been murdered in Turkey.

At the end of October, IS claimed responsibility for killing of young activist Ibrahim Abdelkader and his friend Fares Hamadi.

No information was provided by the authorities as to the identity of the suspects.

The murder of Jerf was widely condemned internationally and raised concerns about the safety of Syrian dissidents in Turkey.

“Jerf's murder has again demonstrated the vulnerability of Syrian refugee journalists in Turkey and has sent an intimidatory message to all of his colleagues, one that is unacceptable,” said Reporters Without Borders secretary ­general Christophe Deloire, following the killing.

“We urge the Turkish authorities to shed all possible light on this case. The government must finally take whatever measures are necessary to guarantee the security of Syrian exile journalists.”

RBSS activists have repeatedly been the targets of threats from IS, with the recent execution of five "spies" in Raqqa believed to serve as a warning to the activists.

The group, which was formed in April 2014, received an International Press Freedom award for its work in 2015 for providing a "counter-narrative to Islamic State’s slickly produced version of events".