FBI probes murder of Syrian-American journalist who covered Assad regime abuses

[TomSea]

FBI probes murder of Syrian-American journalist who covered Assad regime abuses
ABC News

The FBI is probing the murders of Syrian-American journalist and onetime ABC News freelancer Halla Barakat and her mother in Turkey, but Turkish authorities have so far declined U.S. offers to assist in the investigation, ABC News has learned.

Halla, 23, and her mother Orouba, 60 — both of whom were active in the opposition to Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria — were strangled and stabbed to death in the apartment they shared in Istanbul in September. Their bodies were doused with a chemical solution that delayed the decomposition of their remains, police said, an indication that the killer could have been a professional.

Halla was born in Raleigh, N.C., and the FBI has legal jurisdiction to investigate the homicide of any American citizen killed overseas. A representative of the Barakat family who had recently met with senior Trump administration officials in Washington, D.C., told ABC News that the FBI’s legal attache in Turkey called the family in the U.S. to inform them that the FBI has opened a case. Without cooperation from local authorities, however, the FBI’s investigative capabilities are limited.

Continued at: http://abcnews.go.com/International/fbi-probing-murder-syrian-american-journalist-mother-turkey/story?id=51436199