DAMASCUS, Syria — A Missouri man present in Syria informed NBC News on Thursday he spent months in a Syrian jail after after crossing into the nation on a “pilgrimage” to Damascus. It was not broadly identified that the person, who recognized himself as Travis Timmerman and went lacking in Hungary in May, was in Syria.
His discovery got here as a shock to locals, journalists and insurgent officers as 1000’s of detainees emerged from jails after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad over the weekend.
Timmerman, who initially recognized himself solely as “Travis,” was first seen in a video that emerged in a single day.
Surrounded by reporters whereas leaning in opposition to partitions with flaking paint, Timmerman, 29, mentioned he was stopped by Syrian officers earlier this 12 months after crossing into the nation on foot.
“I used to be on a pilgrimage to Damascus,” he informed NBC News in a constructing on the outskirts of the capital.
Timmerman individually informed CBS News that he’d been free of a jail earlier within the week as Assad’s regime was toppled.
“My door was busted down, it woke me up,” Timmerman mentioned. “I believed the guards have been nonetheless there, so I believed the warfare may have been extra lively than it ended up being… Once we received out, there was no resistance, there was no actual combating.”
The video that emerged after he was discovered sparked early hypothesis that the lacking man might be American journalist Austin Tice, 43, who disappeared in 2012 simply days after celebrating his thirty first birthday in Syria.
After being situated by NBC News and different shops in Dhiyabia, Timmerman mentioned he had “been studying the scripture so much” earlier than deciding to cross the mountains from Lebanon into Syria. He appeared calm.
When one man repeatedly provided to place him in contact with U.S. officers, he replied that he was “okay for proper now.”
A U.S. official informed NBC News that Washington was “conscious of reviews of an American discovered exterior of Damascus and in search of to supply help. Out of respect for his privateness, now we have no additional info to supply presently.”
Timmerman mentioned he had been in Europe previous to embarking on his pilgrimage and finally traveled from Lebanon into Syria in late May, however was noticed by a border guard and detained.
Authorities in Missouri and Hungarian capital Budapest had earlier this 12 months put out lacking particular person reviews for a person named Pete Timmerman, with Hungarian police figuring out him as “Travis” Pete Timmerman.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol mentioned in a public consciousness bulletin that Timmerman had gone lacking from Budapest, Hungary, on May twenty eighth, just below seven months in the past.
Timmerman had been recognized by authorities in Budapest in a request for info as “Travis Pete Timmerman.” They mentioned he was final seen at a church and had since “left for an unknown location, with no signal of life.”
Matt Bradley reported from Damascus, and Chantal Da Silva from London.
Richard Engel, Andrea Mitchell and Abigail Williams contributed.
