Turkey arrests 3 suspects over death of anti-Daesh Syrian filmmaker Naji Jerf

A court Sunday ordered the arrest of three suspects captured earlier by police in the killing of Syrian journalist and activist Naji al-Jerf, who was murdered in broad daylight in southern Turkey last month.

The prime suspect in the murder of Jerf, who was known for his anti-DAESH activism in Syria, was detained on Friday, and two others accused of aiding him were detained on Saturday. Policed referred the suspects to a court and judges ordered their arrest based on tangible evidence. The unidentified suspects were captured in Gaziantep, a city on the Syrian border where Jerf had been living.

Police said two suspects confessed to giving "logistical" support to the murder suspect and helped him rent a house while he was tracking down Jerf.
Jerf, who published a pro-opposition magazine, was behind a documentary about DAESH violence and received several threats, according to his friends quoted in Turkish media. He reportedly survived two attempts to blow up his car and was preparing a second documentary about DAESH, which controls large swathes of land in northern Syria near the Turkish-Syrian border and Iraq.

Burhan Nassif, an acquaintance of Jerf's, told reporters at the funeral that the slain activist wanted to keep his family safe after "countless threats," and had decided to relocate to France."

Though it has not claimed responsibility, DAESH remains the main suspect in the killing. The militant group had already claimed responsibility for the murder of two Syrian activists in October in southeastern Turkey for their work to shed light on the group's atrocities in Raqqa. Like the two other victims, Jerf was a member of Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, a group of citizen journalists.