{"id":123265,"date":"2015-10-20T07:28:46","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T07:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=123265"},"modified":"2015-10-22T05:28:31","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T05:28:31","slug":"british-activist-jacky-sutton-found-dead-in-istanbul-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=123265","title":{"rendered":"British activist Jacky Sutton found dead in Istanbul airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexandra Topping, Constanze Letsche — The Guardian Oct 19, 2015<\/h1>\n
\"Jacqueline<\/a>

Jacqueline Sutton found dead at Turkish airport. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

A British woman who was working as the Iraq director for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) has died in an Istanbul airport, the Foreign Office has confirmed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former BBC<\/a> <\/strong>journalist Jacky Sutton, 50, is understood to have been found dead in a toilet at the city\u2019s main airport. The circumstances of her death are as yet unknown. Local media reported it appeared that Sutton, who was travelling to Irbil, northern Iraq, had killed herself after missing a flight connection, a claim colleagues said was unlikely.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Foreign Office said it was providing consular assistance to her family.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sutton, who spoke five languages including basic Arabic, was the acting Iraq head of the London-based IWPR, which supports local journalism in countries affected by conflict and crisis. Its previous Iraq director, Ammar Al Shahbander, was killed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad on 2 May and a memorial service<\/a><\/strong><\/span> was held for him in London last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

The institute said it was trying to establish the facts of her death, which were \u201cunclear\u201d. In a statement<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, Anthony Borden, the executive director of IWPR, said the organisation was devastated at the news.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJacky was one of the top development professionals working on Iraq, and she devoted nearly 10 years of her life to helping the country,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was extremely bright, highly competent, and well able to handle herself in difficult environments, and she was universally loved. We are in total shock.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Friends and colleagues expressed their disbelief about reports in Turkish media that claimed Sutton had taken her own life after becoming distressed when she missed a flight to Iraq and did not have enough money for a new ticket. It was reported that Sutton had arrived in Istanbul on Turkish Airlines flight TK-1986 at about 10pm local time on Saturday night, and was due to fly to Irbil at about midnight, but missed her flight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan Hutchinson, a fellow student at the Australian National University, where Sutton was studying for a PhD focused on international development support to female media professionals in Iraq and Afghanistan, said she did not believe Sutton took her own life, adding that the IWPR had recently \u201ctaken up work countering the anti-women messaging\u201d of Islamic State.<\/span><\/p>\n

She told the Guardian that Sutton was a \u201cvery tough cookie\u201d who had worked in Afghanistan and Iraq for more than a decade and called for an independent investigation into her death. \u201cThere is a huge amount of scepticism among those that knew her that she would kill herself after missing a flight. It just doesn\u2019t add up,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hutchinson said she had spoken to Sutton, who was divorced with no children, a month earlier about the risky nature of the work she was doing defending women\u2019s rights in Iraq. \u201cWhen she took up the job she knew her predecessor had been killed, we knew it was a dangerous job in a dangerous country,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paying tribute to a \u201cpassionate human being\u201d, Hutchinson added: \u201cShe was a fierce woman, a human rights defender who stood up for democracy and spoke truth to power.\u201d An animal-lover who took in creatures wherever she went, she was also very charming, she said. \u201cHer work had a huge impact. She changed the lives of many people in that part of the world, particularly female journalists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In an email sent to the founder of online magazine Her Canberra<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in June, Sutton wrote about the dangers of her role. She told Amanda Whitley in an email that she had moved from accommodation provided for her in Irbil, because there was no way out if someone \u201ccame in uninvited\u201d in order to kill her. \u201cIf Daesh wants to attack they will but it will take planning and I won\u2019t be THE target; if the whacko wants to get to heaven he or she will have to contend with armed guards and a choice of targets, and the same with criminal kidnappers \u2013 a growth industry in Iraq,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s great to be back here and my friends in both Baghdad and Irbil have been calling me pretty much non-stop.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Writing about her life for the site, she detailed her experiences and revealed that she had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after being arrested as a suspected spy while living for five years in Eritrea.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sutton was a veteran journalist and media development expert, who spent two years at the BBC World Service in 1998-2000, reporting from Africa and the Middle East as well as in London. She worked for the United Nations in numerous senior roles in Afghanistan, Iran, west Africa and Gaza, and in 2008 started running a media and elections project for UNDP in Baghdad in 2008 before moving into other roles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Others used Twitter to express their disbelief at Sutton\u2019s death. Jane Pearce, the World Food Programme representative and country director for Iraq, said:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mourning my friend & colleague jacky Sutton tonight. Simply don't believe the news reports.<\/p>\n

— Jane Pearce (@JanePearceWFP) October 18, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n