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Cameraman shot by Turkish police to be arrested

Chase WinterJanuary 26, 2016

Turkish authorities have issued an arrest order for a cameraman who was shot and wounded by security forces as he covered military operations against Kurdish militants. Press rights groups have condemned the charges.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Hk4K
Türkei Diyarbakir Militäroffensive gegen Kurden
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/M. Coban

Refik Tekin, a cameraman for IMC TV, was shot in the leg and wounded last week while covering an ongoing curfew in Cizre, a Kurdish town experiencing clashes between security forces and Kurdish militants.

Accompanying a group of nearly two dozen people - including a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) - Tekin captured the moment security forces fired on the group carrying a white flag without warning, wounding nine people and killing two including a member of the city council.

(Warning: the video in the following tweet displays graphic images from Tekin's shooting, be advised.)

Lying wounded on the ground, the award-winning cameraman continued shooting the unfolding dramatic scene.

Several Kurdish towns in southeast Turkey have been under weeks of curfew as the military and police battle with Kurdish youth groups tied to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The curfews and prohibition from going out on the streets have left dead bodies in the streets and the wounded left without access to medical care. The group Tekin was with had just retrieved a body from the street.

According to IMC TV, a police officer is waiting outside the journalist's hospital room and the local prosecutor has ordered his arrest upon release from the hospital on charges of being a "separatist terrorist organization member."

Turkish journalist rights groups have condemned the charges and pro-government media's attempts to portray Tekin as a terrorist.

Human rights groups and the EU have condemned ongoing military operations and curfews in the region.