New Syrian government ‘very keen’ to work on Austin Tice case, mother of missing US journalist says

Debra Tice says incoming Trump administration has contacted her already

Debra Tice attended a conference in Damascus on Monday. Getty

The mother of US journalist Austin Tice said on Monday that Syria's new transitional government was “very keen to work” on her son’s case after meeting its leader.

Austin Tice, 43, disappeared in August 2012, while travelling through the Damascus suburb of Daraya. He was last seen in a video which surfaced weeks later, showing him blindfolded and held by armed men. No group or government has claimed responsibility for his abduction.

In her first trip back to Syria in a decade, Ms Tice met with Syria’s de facto new leader, Ahmad Al Shara, whose Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group swept through the country in December to depose longtime former president Bashar Al Assad.

“We talked about Mr Al Shara’s own imprisonment, and he understands and wants to work on uniting all families in one way or another,” Ms Tice said at a media conference organised by the NGO Hostage Aid Worldwide in Damascus. Mr Al Shara was held in a variety of detention centres in Iraq in the late 2000s.

More than 100,000 people remain missing in Syria since the 2011 revolution-turned-civil war when Bashar Al Assad’s forces repressed peaceful demonstrations calling for an end to decades of family rule. The fall of the Assad regime has renewed hope for families seeking information about their missing loved ones.

Ms Tice did not provide updates on her son’s case while maintaining that he is alive. “He is still detained,” she said. “Austin, if you can somehow hear this, I love you. I know you’re not giving up, and neither am I.”

In December, former US president Joe Biden said that he believes Austin Tice is alive, despite not having “direct evidence” of his well-being.

Ms Tice said the regime’s collapse has complicated efforts to locate her son. “With the change, it’s more difficult to know where he might be. It’s like starting all over again,” she said.

Still, she expressed hope that the incoming Trump administration will help her find her son, stressing that officials have already reached out to her. “Today, January 20, President Donald Trump will be sworn into office and I have great hope that his administration will work to bring Austin home,” she said.

The issue of missing people remains a significant challenge for Syria's new transitional government. Bayan Rehan, who also spoke at the conference as a member of the Syrian NGO Families for Freedom, told The National that immediate measures should be taken to ensure accountability for missing people.

“Our demands are the closure of prisons and security branches, a complete ban on anyone entering them, and the publication of a statement requiring anyone who has taken information to return it to the new government,” she said.

“The data falls under the responsibility of the new government, not any international organisation,” added Ms Rehan, whose brother is still missing and who is herself a former detainee. Ms Rehan said she is in touch with the new authorities but has yet to meet them.

Detention centres have been easily accessible to the general public since the fall of the Assad regime. The chaos has sparked fears that documents containing information about detainees’ whereabouts and evidence for prosecuting former regime officials might be at risk.

The National visited several security branches and saw thousands of documents strewn across the floors. Some had been burnt by regime forces before they left.