France – Fondation-Institut Kurde de Paris, June 12, 2026
A German journalist, detained in Syria, recently received visits in prison from the German embassy in Damascus, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.
Eva Maria Michelmann disappeared in January during an offensive led by Syrian government forces in the northeast of the country, an area previously controlled by Kurdish forces.
Witnesses reported at the time that she had been taken in a vehicle belonging to government forces in the city of Raqqa, accompanied by Turkish-Kurdish journalist Ahmed Polad.
Both worked for a small news agency Etkin Haber Ajansi (ETHA) and the Özgür TV channel, two left-wing Turkish media, according to the Journalists’ Committee for the Protection (CPJ).
“Employees from the German Embassy in Damascus were able to visit recently” Ms. Michelmann, said a spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry, during a regular press briefing of the German government in Berlin.
She was unable to say why the journalist had been imprisoned and what charges had been brought against her.
About ten days ago, Mrs. Michelmann’s German lawyer, Roland Meister, warned of her poor health.
