KABUL (Kyodo) Two messages were posted Friday on the Twitter account of a Japanese freelance journalist who went missing around April 1 in Afghanistan saying that he is alive but in jail in Archi in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz.
The messages "i am still alive, but in jail" and "here is archi in kunduz. in the jail of commander lativ" were posted under the account of Kosuke Tsuneoka, 41, and were the first messages posted since April 1. It is not known, however, whether Tsuneoka himself posted them.
The previous message posted April 1 was in Japanese and read, "I visited a completely liberated Taliban district and have come now to a place with radio waves."
On April 1, an Afghan who was working for Tsuneoka reported that he had been kidnapped in an e-mail to another journalist, according to an acquaintance of the Tokyo native. Tsuneoka had been on his way to Kunduz.
In June, Afghan security officials said Taliban militants have demanded the Afghan government pay a ransom for Tsuneoka and that negotiations were under way to pay several hundred thousand dollars in return for his release.