Washington D.C. – NBC News, December 13, 2024
Austin Tice appeared to be in “somewhat good” condition in 2022, said an activist and citizen journalist who said he had been jailed with Tice.
Cockroaches crawled out of the walls near a dirty, stained sink in the Syrian prison cell where an ex-prisoner told NBC News that American journalist Austin Tice was once held.
Sahar al-Ahmad said he was in the cell across from Tice and last saw him alive in July 2022.
“I saw him twice. On one occasion I stole a glance while he was walking and exercising,” Ahmad said in an interview Thursday, adding that he never spoke with Tice.
Ahmad, who was able to provide an accurate description of the prison down to the number of steps leading to the area where he was detained, said that he had once been punished “for four hours because I violated the instructions and looked at a detainee.”
NBC News cannot independently verify his account the treatment he suffered.
Tens of thousands of Syrians were believed to be in the country’s vast prison system under the Assads. Relatives rushed to jails, military installations and even black sites to search for detained loved ones as soon as the regime fell.
he said, “he was thin when I saw him. His neck bones were slightly protruding, but he was able to walk and move because they allowed him and other prisoners to exercise and walk for one hour in the prison corridor.”
Like other prisoners, Tice had his hair and eyebrows shaved off to prevent lice, but appeared healthy, able to walk, eat and communicate, said Ahmad, who is now based in Dubai.
