ALBAWABA - Syria ousted President Bashar Assad reportedly requested the kidnapping of American journalist Austin Tice, said a member of the group which detained the journalist, according to the BBC.
The journalist, who disappeared in Syria in 2012, was kidnapped in a calculated operation which was planned for over a month in advance, the British website added. His body was never found or returned, and his fate remains officially unresolved, but speculation suggests he was killed and buried in Syria.
Abu Ali is a former member of the National Defence Forces (NDF), which was a great ally to the Assad regime and is linked to the kidnapping of the U.S. reporter, said Syria's back-then leader sanctioned the abduction of Austin Tice. After the regime's collapse, the BBC released reports after reaching "secret Syrian intelligence files on Tice", proving that it was the old regime in Damascus that had held the journalist.
Supporters of Austin Tice, the only American journalist held captive in Syria, hold up a sign during the unveiling of a new banner calling for his release at the Newseum in Washington, DC on November 2, 2016. (Photo by Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
According to reports, journalist Tice was stopped at an Assad regime checkpoint, and the abduction of the journalist was opportunistic.
The Georgetown University law student, who earlier served in the U.S. Marines, was last seen in a video posted over a month after his kidnapping. He was blindfolded and in apparent distress.
According to documents verified by the BBC, the driver of Austin, whom he used to trust, was in contact with the pro-Assad regime, and he leaked that an American journalist was reporting in rebel-held areas to the Washington Post.
It is worth noting that the Assad government was targeting anyone highlighting its human rights violations during the civil war.
Tice's driver, who was also a member of the NDF, spoke to Sak, the nephew of Bassam al-Hassan, one of Assad's most trusted security figures and head of the NDF and told him about Tice, who in return spoke to the former president. "Bring him to us," Assad replied, claims Abu Ali.
Sally Shakkour is the leader of the English news team. She is also a news and breaking news writer with over 7 years of experience in publishing content and digital journalism. Sally has a good knowledge of Google's SEO as well.
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