An American citizen detained in Syria has been released to Jordan | Prison News

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

American officials revealed that Travis Timmerman, a 29-year-old American citizen who disappeared from a Syrian prison seven months ago, has been released and deported from the country.

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

Timmerman has been missing since June, after he crossed into Syria near the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle.

After arriving 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 Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group, have pushed south in a flash, capturing major government strongholds and toppling al-Assad’s administration.

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

Timmerman’s release comes as prisoners throughout the brutal regime of al-Assad are being freed. For years, organizations such as Human Rights Watch have reported reports of widespread abuse, starvation and disease in detention centers, leading to deaths in government custody.

Some Syrians are reported to have spent years, even decades, within the walls of these buildings, with no contact with the outside world.

Timmerman, however, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was not mistreated in the Syrian prison where he was held, known as the Palestine Branch. He explained that he was caught while on a Christian tour.

A US official told Reuters that Timmerman had been transferred to the Tanf military base in Syria, which is near the border between Jordan and Iraq. From there, he was flown by helicopter to the second US military base in Jordan.

While in prison, Timmerman says he had a mattress, a plastic drinking bowl and two other waste containers. In videos shared shortly after his release, Timmerman revealed that rebels used a sledgehammer to break down his door and free him.

It is not clear where he will go. The AP reported that Timmerman thanked those who freed him from prison but told American officials that he hoped to stay in the Middle East.

The United States continues to search for Austin Tice, a former US marine and freelance journalist who was kidnapped while reporting near the capital Damascus in August 2012.

Tice was among the first US journalists on the ground in Syria, after the 2011 “Arab Spring” pro-democracy protests led to a brutal government crackdown and eventual civil war.

In the days since the fall of al-Assad, videos documenting appalling conditions in the government’s prison system have been widely circulated. Dozens of people also made trips to the institutions, hoping to find friends or loved ones who were imprisoned or disappeared long ago.

Describing the conditions in the Sednaya prison near Damascus, Raed al-Saleh – director of Syria’s Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets – called the facility “hell”.

White Helmet rescuers have been mobilizing the facility to document human rights violations and free the people inside. Al-Saleh told Al Jazeera on Monday that he believed killings were happening every day inside the prison walls.

“It is a slaughterhouse where people are slaughtered and tortured,” al-Saleh said.