Ailing journalist begins hunger strike in northeast Syria prison: regime media

Ailing Syrian journalist Mohammed Al Sagheer has launched a hunger strike while detained at a prison in northeast Syria, Syrian regime media reported on Monday.

Al Sagheer, a journalist for the regime's news channel Al-Ikhbariyah, began his hunger strike on Monday to protest the conditions of his detention, SANA reported.

The journalist, who was based in the city of Hasakeh, was detained in June 2019 by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that control the area and sentenced to 25 years in jail by an anti-terror military court, according to press freedom groups.

His family told the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in August 2021 that he has suffered multiple strokes while in jail.

The IFJ in September 2021 said the original case against Al Sagheer was "implausible" and urged northeast Syria's Kurdish-led authorities to immediately release him because of his "critical health condition".

As with the various authorities controlling different part of the country, northeast Syria's administration and armed forces have repeatedly been accused by press freedom groups of arbitrary arrest of journalists and other media workers.

More than 300 journalists have been arrested in Syria since 2011, according to data from the Syrian Centre for Media (SCM), while more than 100 have been abducted.