While searching for American journalist Austin Tice in one of Syria’s many secret prisons, CNN’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward and her team – producer Brent Swails and cameraman Scott McWhinnie – made a startling discovery: a Syrian prisoner left behind by his captors who fled during the fall of Damascus.
Deep in the belly of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence headquarters, the CNN team searched the empty cells looking for hints of Tice when they found one cell still locked.
After a guard shot the lock off the cell door, the team found a man hiding under a blanket.
“I’m a civilian, I’m a civilian,” he said, raising his hands.
The prisoner said he was from the city of Homs and had been locked in the windowless cell for three months, spending the last four or more days without food or water.
Once outside the man, who said his name is Adel, stared up at the sky in amazement.
“My God, the light. There is light.”
Adel said he was taken from his home by officers from Syria’s much-feared intelligence services, the mukhabarat.
“For three months I didn’t know anything about my family, I didn’t hear anything about my children,” he said.
A fighter handed him something to eat and told him Bashar al-Assad’s regime had fallen.
“There’s no more army, there’s no more prisons, no more checkpoints. Syria is free,” the fighter said.
“Are you serious?” Adel asked, his body shaking as the shock set in.
As paramedics arrive, Adel is assured he was now safe.
“Everything is okay. You are safe. Do not be afraid anymore. Everything you are afraid of is gone.”
Credit CNN
