DAMASCUS, Syria– Syria's brand-new management states it holds ousted President Bashar al-Assad accountable for the “discomfort caused” for several years on the household of Austin Tice as the search goes on for the American reporter who went missing out on in the nation more than a years earlier while he was reporting on the Syrian civil war.
“We hold Bashar al-Assad and his criminal program liable for the repercussions of Austin's disappearance and the discomfort caused on his mom– discomfort, tears and separation,” Obaida Al-Arnaot, main representative and head of the political affairs department of Syria's interim federal government, stated in an interview Wednesday.
Arnaot stated the interim federal government had actually searched for Tice, who is 43, to reunite him with his household however has up until now had no luck.
“We attempted as much as possible to discover details about Austin and return him to his mom, however we have actually not reached any outcome,” he stated.
A video emerged online over night declaring to reveal a missing American alive in the town of Dhiyabia, simply outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, stimulating speculation that it might be Tice. A senior U.S. authorities informed NBC News it was not Tice, and a source close to Tice's household stated they do not think the guy in the video is their missing boy.
The male in the video rather determined himself to NBC News as “Travis” from Missouri, decreasing to offer a surname before later recognizing himself as Travis Timmerman, last seen in Budapest, Hungary, in May. He stated that he had actually crossed into Syria on foot before he was apprehended which he had actually been kept in jail for months.
Tice, from Houston, vanished in 2012 simply days after he commemorated his 31st birthday in Syria, where he was reporting on the civil war that started a year previously.
Video emerged soon after he vanished revealing masked guys holding him at gunpoint, however the U.S. federal government questioned the video's credibility, recommending it was staged.
Rather, the State Department stated Tice was thought to be in the custody of the Syrian federal government– a charge Assad's routine emphatically rejected.
In an interview in Damascus, Syrian reporter Saher al-Ahmad stated he had actually seen Tice on 2 celebrations while he himself was put behind bars at a center in the capital's Kafr Sousa district. He stated he did not speak to him.
The last time he saw Tice remained in July 2022, stated Ahmad, who explained Tice as seeming in “rather excellent” condition.
He stated, “he was thin when I saw him. His neck bones were a little extending, however he had the ability to stroll and move due to the fact that they permitted him and other detainees to work out and stroll for one hour in the jail passage.”
Normally, Ahmad stated, the conditions foreign detainees were kept in were “exceptional” compared to those withstood by Syrian detainees,
