In a Syrian prison, a family man was apparently overlooked during an initial liberation operation and has only now been discovered. US journalists filmed the moving scene – the man could hardly believe he had been freed.
The facts surrounding this article have now changed. As of December 17, 2024, it is known that the “freed man” was not a prisoner of the Assad regime, but Salama Mohammad Salama. He is a first lieutenant in the Syrian Air Force’s intelligence service. He was known for “theft, extortion and coercion of residents to become informants” and was jailed for less than a month in a dispute over extorted money, write the Syrian fact-checkers verify-sy.com. For reasons of transparency, the article remains available on t-online.
After the fall of the Assad regime, there is a sense of optimism in Syria, but decades of oppression have left deep scars in the country. Thousands are still searching for missing relatives who were imprisoned in countless prisons, some of them underground, during the regime.
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But apparently not all prisoners have been freed yet, as the renowned reporter Clarissa Ward from the US broadcaster CNN has now found out. Ward and her team, who say they are looking for US journalist Austin Tice, who has been kidnapped for years in Syria, found a Syrian prisoner during their search in an intelligence building in Damascus. They are moving scenes: The frightened man, who was lying in a cell under a blanket, had obviously not noticed the overthrow of the Assad government and could hardly believe that he had been liberated.
The man had previously been imprisoned for over three months and was apparently overlooked during an initial search of the prison, which was believed to have been abandoned. After months in a windowless cell with no daylight, the Syrian was finally led out of the facility by journalists and a rebel. The man had not eaten or drunk anything for about four days.
The man explained in front of the camera that it was his third time in prison within a short period of time. When he finally saw daylight together with his rescuers, he could hardly believe his eyes: “My God, there is light!” the father of the family repeated again and again. One of the rebel freedom fighters told him: “There is no more army, no checkpoints, no prisons. Syria is free.” It was the first time the man had heard those words in years. Overwhelmed with emotion, he gratefully fell into the arms of his liberators.
