ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish government in Erbil said on Thursday that Japanese journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka was arrested in the Kurdistan Region this week on an arrest warrant from judicial authorities and that he has admitted working for ISIS and traveling to the group’s capital Raqqa in Syria. The head of the Kurdish government’s committee to evaluate and respond to international reports, Dindar Zebari, said at a press conference that Tsuneoka was arrested by the anti-terrorism forces on a court order for links with ISIS and connection with other radical groups in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Zebari said that Tsuneoka had been detained by Japanese authorities on more than one occasion but later released for lack of hard evidence. Zebari revealed that Tsuneoka, a convert to Islam, had been persuaded by an Islamic cleric in Japan to travel to Raqqa and work as an interpreter for ISIS leaders. Tsuneoka had had contacts with Chechen and Afghan fighters in the past and visited both countries. Zebari said that the Japanese journalist had first denied visiting Raqqa on his travels to Syria but was later discovered to have indeed visited the ISIS capital. Tsuneoka is currently under investigation in the Kurdistan Region, said Zebari, adding that in his confession the journalist had revealed that he had received a medal of honor from ISIS for his work with the group. Tsuneoka had covered some of a Peshmerga offensive against ISIS on the Khazir front as a freelance journalist. Kurdish authorities have contacted the Japanese embassy in Iraq, said Zebari, and informed them of the detention of one of their citizens on charges of terrorism and that Erbil will work with the embassy on Tsuneoka’s case.
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