Syria confirms it is holding German journalist who went missing months ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government confirms that a German journalist who went missing months ago is detained in Syria.

Eva Maria Michelmann, 36, was last seen on January 18, when she and a Kurdish-Turkish colleague were supposedly detained by Syrian government forces during the takeover of Raqqa during military operations against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, said earlier this week.

The group called for her release.

Syria’s Information Ministry says in a statement that Michelmann and a Turkish man — identified by CPJ as Kurdish-Turkish journalist Ahmed Polad — were found during a sweep of Raqqa by Interior Ministry forces, in a building that had been used by the SDF as a “security headquarters.”

It says the two foreign nationals had “refused to disclose their true identities and possessed no official documentation verifying who they were.” During initial questioning, it says, they “claimed to be engaged in humanitarian work and made no mention of any journalistic role” and said they were working for the United Nations, which was later determined to be false.

The Information Ministry says they had then attempted to escape and were detained again on “suspicions that they may be foreign fighters present in Syria illegally.”

The statement says that the two were “formally detained, and legal proceedings have been initiated in preparation for referral to the competent judicial authorities.”

It does not specify the charges against them.

CPJ said the two journalists worked for Istanbul-based Etkin News Agency ETHA and Özgür TV, which operates across several cities in Europe.