Lawyer Serkan Akbas says his client, Jake Hess, was deported on Aug. 20 after Turkish authorities speeded up the lengthy process.

The 25-year old Hess, of Hampton, New Hampshire, was detained in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on Aug. 11.

Authorities said Hess was detained because his name appears in a prosecutor's indictment against Kurdish activists charged with links to Kurdish rebels.

Hess maintained he was targeted because of his writings critical of Turkish treatment of Kurds for Inter Press Service, a Rome-based agency that covers poverty and other issues in developing nations.