Jacky Sutton, the story of a cover up that might end badly

The journalism and humanitarian world is weeping for the sudden death of Jacky Sutton, 50 year-old. She was a well respected researcher and journalist. She travelled throughout the world, looking for the truth and trying to help people in need. Nobody who knew her believe she committed suicide and everybody is asking for an international investigation. I wrote about it in the paper edition of Corriere della Sera.

Let’s start with what we really know: Jacky Sutton died at Ataturk airport, in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday early morning. She was found with shoe laces around her neck by three Russian tourists in a bathroom. She was passing by the Turkish hub, on her way to Erbil, Iraq, from London. Her plane landed at 10 pm and her connecting flight was at 12 am. For some unclear reasons she lost it.

Conveniently enough the CCTV were not working in the area where she was waiting and around the bathroom where she died. But others filmed her while passing security and with a black bag while walking around the airport. From the footage I have seen, it’s impossible to determine anything about her shoes. Although the footage can say very little, at first she doesn’t seem in distress.

 

The Turkish media initially reported that when she realized she lost her flight, she started crying with Turkish airlines staff. The airline doesn’t rembourse lost flights, so she would have to buy a new ticket. And according to an official statement she didn’t have the money. So she killed herself. The lack of money was actually denied 24 hours later, since 2300 euros were found in her wallet. So that could not be the reason why she killed herself.

Did she kill herself? That is the main question. Again, who knew her denies this possibility. As it was pointed out to me, sometimes suicide are sudden for the people around the victim, but once they start thinking about it signals come up quite clearly. In this case nobody seems to have picked up a slightest problem that could have led to such a violent act.

She just got a new job, replacing the Iraqi director of Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Ammar Al Shahbander, who died in a car bomb that killed 17 people. She was worried about her security, but she wanted the job.

If she didn’t  kill herself, who did it? She was working in women under ISIS and she was posing lots of questions. The Ataturk airport, according to the media, it’s a very sketchy place. The mosque is used as a recruiting place for wannabe jihadi, and it is one of the first meeting point for foreigners who want to join the Islamic State, according to officials in Iraq.

I praise for an investigation, especially after reading about an American woman who died after she lost her flight at Ataturk airport. She got arrested and died after being restrained by police officers. Twelve people, two years later, were charged with murder.

So is this a cover up? It’s hard to say, but we all hope something will come up. As one of her friend told me: “We owe her the truth. She was fearless and her job was terrific. We need to understand what happened to her.” I agree.