American pilgrim imprisoned in Assad’s Syria calls his release from prison a ‘blessing’

DAMASCUS, Syria (news agencies) — An American who disappeared seven months ago into former Syrian President Bashar Assad’s notorious prison system said early Friday he was released by the “liberators” who arrived in Damascus a day after the longtime ruler fled the capital.

Travis Timmerman called his release a “blessing” when he spoke to media from a hotel room in Damascus, where he arrived late Thursday. He was among the thousands of people released from Syria’s sprawling military prisons this week after rebels reached Damascus, overthrowing Assad and ending his family’s 54-year rule.

Timmerman, 29, said he had gone to Syria on a Christian pilgrimage and was not ill-treated while in Palestine Branch, a notorious detention facility operated by Syrian intelligence. He said he was freed by “the liberators who came into the prison and knocked the door down (of his cell) with a hammer.”

The political affairs office of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that led the lightning offensive to topple Assad’s government, said the group had secured his release.

“We affirm our readiness to cooperate directly with the U.S. administration to complete the search for American citizens disappeared by the former Assad regime,” the group said, adding that a search was underway for Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing in Syria 12 years ago. An official with the group later said it was arranging for Timmerman to leave Syria, but gave no details.

Timmerman said he was released Monday morning alongside a young Syrian man and 70 female prisoners, some of whom had their children with them.

He had been held separately from Syrian and other Arab prisoners and said he didn’t know of any other Americans held in the facility.

“I was there seven months. There were women there up above me,” Timmerman said. He heard the women singing and teaching their children and could hear some of the men being beaten regularly. “I was never beaten,” he said.

He was detained after he crossed into Syria from a mountain along the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle in June. He was questioned for three and half hours by interrogators who thought he must be a spy. In a brief second interview, they searched his mobile phone, and in the last interview, he started discussing his dreams with his captors.

He said their threat of using violence against him was “implicit” because he could hear daily beatings next door. But his captors let him use his mobile to call his family three weeks ago. At the time, Timmerman didn’t tell his family he was in Damascus, only that he was fine.

He said later in his detention, he could hear explosions — at a time when Israel was intensifying its strikes in Syria. Israel’s war with the Hezbollah militant group had intensified in September, before a ceasefire was reached last month.

“I heard some explosives that shook the building,” he said.

In his prison cell, Timmerman said he had a mattress, a plastic drinking container and two others for waste. He had three bathroom breaks and had exercise breaks in the first half of his stay.

He said the Friday calls to prayers helped keep track of days.

He said he gained weight at first because he ate unleavened bread, rice and oats. Sometimes he would get a potato or a tomato — a treatment clearly reserved for non-Syrian prisoners, who often ended up emaciated or sick.

“It is a time of solace and you can meditate on your life,” he told news agencies. “It was good for me.”

Timmerman was disheveled, with a scraggly beard and long hair and nails. He said he had a good sleep and a meal on Thursday.

He said he planned to return to Damascus.

Timmerman is from Urbana, Missouri, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Springfield in the southwestern part of the state. He earned a finance degree from Missouri State University in 2017.

Timmerman’s mother, Stacey Gardiner, told the news agencies that as of Thursday evening, she hadn’t spoken to her son. She said he told her he was visiting Prague and Budapest, Hungary, to “write about different churches.” She said she last heard from him in May, when he said he was going somewhere without internet and that he would call when he had access again. Then he stopped replying to calls and texts and she didn’t know whether he was alive or dead.