By Hannan Adely
Jeremy Loffredo, the journalist from Toms River, New Jersey, who was detained in Israel and charged with “aiding the enemy during wartime,” has left Israel, a State Department spokesman said Monday.
Loffredo was arrested Oct. 8 at a checkpoint in the West Bank and held in detention until a judge ordered his release Friday. The allegations against him stemmed from his reporting for The Grayzone, which included information about the locations of strikes launched at military targets inside Israel this month.
Asked about Loffredo at a press briefing, spokesman Vedant Patel answered, “My understanding is that he has left Israel,” but he provided no further detail.
Max Blumenthal, editor in chief of The Grayzone, wrote in a in a statement posted Monday on Twitter that Loffredo was on his way home “after being informally deported by the Israeli police.” Loffredo, he wrote, had been blindfolded and shackled in a military truck, then held in solitary confinement for three days with little food or water.
“Two Israeli judges ruled Jeremy’s reporting did not violate the military censor’s policy, they gave the police until October 20 to investigate him,” Blumenthal wrote. “During that period, the police seized and hacked into his phone, confiscated his wallet and passport, and interrogated him repeatedly at a station in occupied territory. When the deadline to wrap the investigation arrived, the police quit their fishing expedition and ordered Jeremy to book the first available flight out of the country.”
Other media outlets had reported similar information about the location of Iranian missile strikes, but were not charged. Advocates for free speech, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Defending Rights & Dissent, Courage Foundation and Freedom of the Press Foundation, urged U.S. officials to intervene on Loffredo’s behalf and raised alarms about attacks on journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“We’re extremely grateful for the massive outpouring of support Jeremy received,” Blumenthal wrote. “The pressure generated by our colleagues, supporters and press freedom orgs played a pivotal role in ending his wrongful detention.”
Loffredo, a Jewish American independent journalist, is from Toms River, although news reports said he was most recently a resident of New York. Loffredo, 28, graduated from Manhattan College.
Source: northjersey.com, October 21, 2024.