Damascus, Oct 13 (AFP) Turkey has handed over to Syrianauthorities a pilot who was arrested by Ankara after hisaircraft crashed near the border of the two neighbouringcountries, official media said today.
Syrian news agency SANA said the 56-year-old pilot -- whomanaged to bail out of his aircraft before it went down inTurkey in March -- was released by Turkish authoritiesyesterday.
Turkey's Dogan news agency said a court ordered hisrelease pending a trial for "espionage" and "violating thefrontier" and that he had been transferred yesterday to acentre for migrants.
SANA identified the pilot as Mohammed Sufan and said "hehas been handed over to the competent (Syrian) authorities".
The announcement of his release comes amid a warming ofties between Turkey, which backs Syrian opposition fighters,and Russia which supports President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Today, Turkey said it had deployed dozens of soldiers inthe Syrian northwestern province of Idlib to establish"observation posts".
Idlib is one of four so-called "de-escalation" zonesunder a deal brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran in May, aspart of a major push to still fighting in war-torn Syria.
(AFP)RB.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.