The UK police have charged the father of a Briton, who volunteers with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria and fights against the Daesh terrorist group*, with terrorism offences in the first of such a case in the country, media reported on Friday.
According to The Guardian newspaper, the police detained 49-year-old Paul Erdal on 11 December in the town of Solihull, located in the central county of West Midlands. Erdal was questioned about his son, Dan Newey, who joined the YPG in the battle against Daesh in 2017.
Newey, however, was not charged when he returned to the United Kingdom from Syria in March 2018 but was investigated and placed on a watch list.
Unlike the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the YPG is not considered a terrorist organisation by the UK. Hundreds of volunteers from all over the world joined the Kurdish groups in Syria, including many UK nationals. To this date, at least seven Britons were killed while fighting for the YPG.
* Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia