The mom of Austin Tice, an American journalist kidnapped in Syria, stated on Monday that she had met with Syria’s new chief in Damascus and expressed hope that “a web page might be turned” within the greater than decade-long seek for her son.
Debra Tice gave a information convention in Damascus on Monday after the assembly with Ahmed al-Shara, whose insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led the sudden offensive final month that toppled President Bashar al-Assad, ending greater than 50 years of Assad household rule in Syria. Syria’s state information company additionally reported on the assembly, posting photos of her in dialog with Mr. al-Shara on the presidential palace.
Though she had no new data on her son’s whereabouts, Ms. Tice, who arrived in Damascus on Saturday, stated she felt optimistic that Syria’s new insurgent leaders would assist her and Syrian households trying to find family members nonetheless lacking after being held within the outdated regime’s infamous prisons.
“It was so fantastic to be taught that they’re devoted and decided to carry residence my son and your sons,” Ms. Tice stated, addressing Syrians trying to find lacking family members as effectively. “They know what we’re going by way of.”
Ms. Tice stated that so far as she knew, her son was nonetheless being held captive, however the turmoil since Mr. al-Assad’s ouster made it far more tough to establish his whereabouts.
“It’s like beginning once more,” she stated.
Mr. Tice was kidnapped at a checkpoint in a suburb of Damascus in 2012. He appeared not lengthy after in a video, blindfolded and held by masked males with assault rifles. Former U.S. officers stated they believed that the video was a ploy by the federal government responsible rebels for his disappearance.
Former and present U.S. officers have stated they imagine Mr. Tice managed to flee a number of weeks after his seize by way of a window of a jail cell, however was caught by Syrian intelligence.
President Joe Biden stated in December, after Mr. al-Assad’s ouster, that U.S. officers believed Mr. Tice was nonetheless being held captive and hoped to carry him residence, whereas including that that they had “no direct evidence” about his standing.
Officers in his administration spent years on the lookout for Mr. Tice, together with a visit to Damascus in December by his particular envoy on hostages. The White Home additionally gave the rebel group a list of former Syrian officers who might need information about Mr. Tice, a freelance journalist from Houston who wrote for The Washington Put up and different retailers.
However Ms. Tice has not too long ago been vital of the Biden administration, saying it didn’t negotiate exhausting sufficient for her son’s launch.
Ms. Tice stated she felt hopeful in regards to the incoming administration of Donald Trump. “Issues are going to alter,” she stated. “I’m trying ahead to that. His individuals have already reached out to me.” .
It was Ms. Tice’s first go to to Syria since 2015, when she met with officers of the Assad authorities, who by no means confirmed whether or not they held her son and later stopped issuing her visas.
Throughout her assembly with Mr. al-Shara, Ms. Tice stated, he spoke to her of his personal time in jail. In 2003, Mr. al-Shara joined Al Qaeda to battle the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the place Mr. Tice as soon as served as a Marine. Mr. al-Shara spent years in a U.S. jail in Iraq, in accordance with Arab media accounts.
After main Al Qaeda’s Syrian department within the early days of the 13-year revolt towards Mr. al-Assad, Mr. al-Sharaa reformulated the group as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in 2017 and has sought to distance it from its Al Qaeda previous.
Former and present U.S. officers have stated they imagine Mr. Tice was held in a number of security-service detention services, together with Department 248 and Department 215, each believed to be army intelligence websites.
Throughout her go to to Syria she visited each locations, Ms. Tice stated, describing them as an “terrible, horrible nightmare.”
