Curious Case of Imprisoned German Journalist

Georg Birgelen is quite familiar with the world of diplomacy. For the last two-and-a-half years, he has headed up the German Consulate in Istanbul and prior to that, he was deputy chief of mission at the German Embassy in Moscow. He also played an instrumental role in looking after the imprisoned German journalist Deniz Yücel, who was just released after spending a year in prison in Turkey without charges. In January 2017, prior to Yücel's arrest, Birgelen, 62, brought food to the Die Welt correspondent during the several weeks he spent hiding from the Turkish police in the summer residence of the German ambassador in Istanbul. Later, Birgelen regularly visited Yücel in the high-security prison Silivri, where he was being held.