Swedish YPG fighter Jesper Söder was arrested along with 3 other internationalist YPG members two weeks ago by KDP forces and was released yesterday. He summarized what they lived through on his socal media accounts.

Swedish citizens Jesper Söder and Andreas Charalabos Panagiotidis and British citizens Andrew John Woodhead and Lee Egerton had been arrested on June 23 near Akre province in Southern Kurdistan. The Swedish Foreign Ministry issued a statement yesterday and announced that Jesper Söder and Andreas Charalabos have been released.

SÖDER SUMMARIZED THEIR EXPERIENCE

Söder posted on his social media accounts about the visa issue that got them arrested and how they were treated in prison. Söder said he himself did play a part in their arrest as the visas on their passports were in fact expired, but pointed out that an expired visa doesn’t justify the treatment they received. Söder said the acceleration of political arguments among Kurds hurt internationalist fighters who fight against ISIS and added: “KDP’s political and military authorities in Southern Kurdistan first detained us and then threw us in a prison in Duhok first, then transferred us to a high security prison in Hewlêr, even though we repeatedly told them we are YPG members.”

Swedish Jesper Söder listed the treatment they received with the excuse that their visas had expired:

- KDP lied to the Swedish Foreign Ministry about the date we were arrested (We were arrested on June 23, not 25.)

- We were lied to and told that the Swedish Consulate was closed for 13 days.

- They kept us in a 80-person ward with 30 ISIS militants and sympathizers.

- We were not allowed to talk to our lawyers and families.

- There are 14-15 year old children held together with ISIS members

Jesper Söder said that they were treated fairly OK even though the conditions were negative in general.