US citizen imprisoned in Syria released and flown to Jordan | Prison News

Travis Timmerman, 29, was imprisoned in Syria after crossing the country on a Christian pilgrimage in June.

US officials have revealed that Travis Timmerman, a 29-year-old US citizen who disappeared into the Syrian prison system seven months ago, has been released and taken out of the country.

Citing unnamed government sources, news agencies Reuters and the Associated Press reported Friday that Timmerman had been flown to Jordan to meet with U.S. officials.

Timmerman had been missing since June, after crossing the border into Syria near the town of Zahle in eastern Lebanon.

Once he arrived in the country, he was imprisoned under the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But in recent weeks, Syrian opposition forces, led by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have pushed south in a blitzkrieg offensive, seizing key government strongholds and toppling the al-Assad administration.

On December 8, al-Assad fled to Russia, ending his family's more than half-century of rule.

Timmerman's release comes as prisoners in the al-Assad government's notorious prison system are released. For years, organizations like Human Rights Watch have reported widespread torture, starvation, and disease in detention centers, leading to deaths in government prisons.

Some Syrians have reportedly spent years, even decades, inside the walls of the facilities, without contact with the outside world.

Timmerman, however, told The Associated Press on Friday that he had not been treated poorly in the Syrian prison where he was held, known as the Palestine Branch. He explained that he had been captured during a Christian pilgrimage.

A U.S. official told Reuters that Timmerman was transported to the al-Tanf military garrison in Syria, located near the border with Jordan and Iraq. From there, he was transported by helicopter to a second U.S. military base in Jordan.

In prison, Timmerman said he had a mattress, a plastic container and two other containers to dispose of waste. In videos shared shortly after his release, Timmerman said rebels used a hammer to break down his cell door and free him.

It's unclear where he'll go next. The AP reported that Timmerman thanked those who released him from prison, but told U.S. officials he hoped to remain in the Middle East.

The United States continues to search for Austin Tice, a former freelance journalist and U.S. Marine who was kidnapped while working near the capital Damascus in August 2012.

Tice had been one of the first American journalists on the ground in Syria, after the 2011 Arab Spring pro-democracy protests sparked a brutal government crackdown and ultimately civil war.

Since the fall of Al-Assad, videos documenting appalling conditions in the government prison system have been widely shared. Many people have also visited the facilities, hoping to find friends or relatives who have been detained or long missing.

Describing conditions in Sednaya prison near Damascus, Raed al-Saleh, director of the Syrian civil defense organization known as the White Helmets, called the facility hellish.

White Helmet rescuers combed the facilities to document human rights violations and free those there. Al-Saleh told Al Jazeera on Monday that he believed executions were taking place daily inside the prison walls.

It is a human slaughterhouse where human beings are slaughtered and tortured, al-Saleh said.

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