Family of Journalist Ahmet Polad seeks information on his fate

On July 30, the Rojava Committee for Prisoners and Missing Persons told our agency that 628 people from the region were considered missing following events that took place there earlier this year. The committee said it had identified the detention locations of 138 of them in different Syrian cities.

Accordingly, the family of journalist Ahmet Polad submitted a request to the Rojava Committee for Prisoners and Missing Persons, calling for his name to be added to its lists and for his fate to be established after all information about him was cut off following his detention nearly seven months ago.

The Rojava Committee for Prisoners and Missing Persons relies on information provided by the families of missing and detained people and adds their names to its lists based on the information it receives.

Ahmet Polad was born on June 3, 1999, in Istanbul. He moved to Rojava in 2017, where he began working in the media sector. He produced political and social programs for Özgür TV and is a member of the Free Media Union, a union of journalists in Syria.

Following attacks on the areas of Deir Hafer, Raqqa and Tabqa, Polad was in Raqqa to follow and cover developments alongside ETHA correspondent Eva Maria Michelmann.

On January 18, 2026, Syrian transitional government forces detained journalists Ahmet Polad and Eva Maria Michelmann in Raqqa.

Polad's fate has remained unknown since then, while his colleague Eva Maria Michelmann, a German national, was released on June 19.

According to information Michelmann provided to the AVEG-KON website following her release, she and Polad were tortured after their detention. She also said she was assaulted and that drugs were placed in her coffee while she was in detention.

Several days after their detention, Michelmann was separated from Polad. She said that during their last conversation, Polad told her, "I am Kurdish, and my life is in danger." Those were the last words she heard from him.

Michelmann said that when Polad was taken from the place where they were being held, he was not injured. However, the family later received information from people who had been released that he was being held in Aleppo Prison and had sustained injuries. The family has so far been unable to officially verify the information or determine his health condition.

Ahmet's father, Adel Aslan, and other family members have lived in a state of anxiety and fear since his detention, amid the lack of confirmed information about his whereabouts or health.

Adel Aslan told our agency that the family had spent seven months in fear and uncertainty, adding: "We want to know what happened to our son."

Despite the passage of months since his detention, Ahmet Polad's family remains unaware of his whereabouts or health condition. They are calling for information on his fate and clear details about the circumstances of his detention. The request submitted to the Rojava Committee for Prisoners and Missing Persons is an effort to document his case and follow up on it as part of the lists of detainees and missing persons.

a.k

ANHA