Travis Timmerman says he was detained after crossing into Syria on a Christian pilgrimage earlier this 12 months.
The USA is working to convey dwelling a US citizen present in Syria, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated.
Travis Timmerman seems to have been amongst 1000’s of individuals launched from the nation’s infamous prisons after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was ousted this week in a lightning offensive by armed opposition teams.
“We’re working to convey him dwelling,” Blinken stated throughout a go to to neighbouring Jordan on Thursday to debate the state of affairs in Syria, including that he couldn’t present “any particulars on precisely what’s going to occur”.
Timmerman, a 29-year-old from the US state of Missouri, advised reporters that he was detained after crossing into Syria on foot throughout a Christian pilgrimage seven months in the past.
Video footage launched on-line on Thursday confirmed him mendacity on a mattress underneath a blanket in what gave the impression to be a non-public home. A gaggle of males stated that he was being handled effectively and could be safely returned dwelling.
“It was OK. I used to be fed. I used to be watered. The one problem was that I couldn’t go to the lavatory after I wished to,” Timmerman stated later in an interview with the Al Arabiya tv community, including that he was solely allowed to go 3 times a day.
“I used to be not overwhelmed and the guards handled me decently,” Timmerman stated.
Missouri regulation enforcement had reported Timmerman lacking in Hungary earlier this 12 months, and in August, Hungarian police put out a lacking individuals announcement saying he was final seen at a church in Budapest.
His launch comes as Syrians have poured into the nation’s infamous prisons looking for family members who went lacking throughout al-Assad’s crackdown on human rights activists, opposition teams and different perceived opponents.
Rights teams and the United Nations have stated tens of 1000’s of Syrian civilians had been arbitrarily detained or disappeared by the Syrian authorities since 2011, when a well-liked rebellion towards al-Assad’s rule started.
The detention centres had been rife with mass killings, torture and different merciless and inhuman therapy, and Amnesty Worldwide dubbed one infamous facility close to the capital Damascus, Sednaya, a “human slaughterhouse”.
As video emerged on-line of Timmerman on Thursday, he was initially mistaken by some for Austin Tice, an American journalist who went lacking after he was kidnapped in Syria 12 years in the past.
Syria’s new transitional authorities stated in a press release on Telegram that the seek for Tice was ongoing and that it was able to cooperate with Washington to search for Individuals disappeared underneath al-Assad.
In 2022, US President Joe Biden accused the Syrian authorities of holding Tice.
Since al-Assad’s ouster, Biden has stated his administration believes Tice was alive and was dedicated to bringing him dwelling.
“We expect we are able to get him again, however we’ve got no direct proof of that but. And Assad needs to be held accountable,” the president stated on Sunday. “We now have to establish the place he’s.”
