Tokyo: Several credit cards of Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda, allegedly kidnapped in Syria in June 2015, were used for online transactions after his disappearance, authorities said on Wednesday.
Contact with Yasuda was lost a month after he left Japan for Turkey from where he reached Syria, and where he is believed to have been abducted by the terror group Al Nusra, Efe news reported.
According to the Japanese police, several cards of the 42-year-old freelance journalist were used to make online payments through various European web pages after his kidnapping in June 2015.
Yasuda's Facebook account has also been accessed by someone post June 2015.
Japanese authorities have requested more information from various foreign operators to help shed light on the transactions.
The Japanese government is yet to officially recognize the kidnapping, although it did admit publicly that photographs allegedly taken by the captors and which appeared in the media, "seem to indicate that it is Jumpei Yasuda".
The last image was published in May, and it showed a man (believed to be Yasuda) with long hair and beard, and dressed in orange clothes and holding a sign reading: "Please help me. This is my last chance".
