Debra Tice, the mom of American journalist Austin Tice, who went lacking in Syria in 2012, speaks throughout a press convention in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.
Omar Sanadiki/AP
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Omar Sanadiki/AP
DAMASCUS, Syria— Debra Tice, the mom of American journalist Austin Tice who went lacking in Syria twelve years in the past, is visiting Syria and assembly with officers within the nation’s new de facto authorities within the hopes of discovering new clues as to her son’s whereabouts.
“We’re turning a page in Syria,” Tice advised reporters in Damascus, Syria’s capital. “I think it’s prudent for us to have very high hopes and to believe that we’re going to be able to engage, and that they’re going to want to help us reunite our families.”
Final December, rebels led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, ousted Syria’s former dictator, President Bashar al-Assad. Debra Tice has been attempting to work with Syria’s de facto new authorities to search out her son, Austin, who’s now 43.
Her son went lacking whereas protecting the Syrian civil conflict, after he was taken at a checkpoint within the Damascus suburbs in 2012.
Throughout her go to this week, Debra Tice visited two former army prisons and met with Syria’s present de facto chief, Ahmed al-Sharaa for about three hours.
Syria’s de facto chief Ahmad al-Sharaa, proper, meets with Debra Tice, the mom of American journalist Austin Tice, who went lacking in Syria in 2012, left, and Nizar Zakka, head of non-profit Hostage Help Worldwide, middle, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.
AP/SANA
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AP/SANA
Sharaa himself was arrested by American forces and held for 5 years in varied detention facilities, together with Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
“One of the things we talked about with Mr. Sharaa was his own imprisonment,” Tice mentioned. “They know what we are going through. And as they do their important work, they are trying to make things right for people like us.”
Tice mentioned Sharaa pledged to assist her. She additionally mentioned the brand new Trump administration had already reached out to her to assist discover out what occurred to her son.
Tice spent greater than three months dwelling in Syria in 2014, throughout which she mentioned she grew to like the nation her son reported on. She final visited Syria in 2015, after which the Assad regime didn’t grant her additional visas.
“I know that I come here, I am part of the Syrian mothers,” Tice mentioned, referring to the moms of tens of hundreds of Syrian who disappeared into Assad’s in depth jail system. “And we can sit down and have tea together, and we can also carry out burdens together.”
