Overview
- Lawyers for Eva‑Maria Michelmann’s family said Monday that several recently released prisoners reported she is alive in the women’s ward of a prison in Aleppo.
- Michelmann and her colleague Ahmet Polat were last seen January 18 in Raqqa, where witnesses say security forces tied to Syria’s transitional government detained them during an offensive.
- Testimony from prisoners freed after an April 11 exchange described a women’s unit holding about 40 detainees and “a German journalist” widely understood to be Michelmann.
- Witnesses reported isolation, beatings, and hunger inside the facility, and a March 2026 UN report documenting state isolation detention in Syria reinforces concerns about her treatment.
- The transitional government denies holding the journalists, while Germany’s Foreign Office and its embassies say they are working to verify the reports as the family demands immediate ICRC and consular visits and her release.