Politics Missing US reporter found in Syria?

Following the fall of the ruler Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the US journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted more than ten years ago, is said to have been found alive.

Local journalists published photos and videos of an exhausted and absent-looking man with a beard and hooded sweater, who is said to be Tice.

A local security guard discovered Tice in a village near Damascus, wrote Syrian journalist Mohammed Raschid on X. After twelve years in the prisons of the Assad government, a local resident had taken him in.

A journalist from the US television station CNN, on the other hand, wrote on X: "This is 100 percent not Austin Tice. I have no idea who it is, but it's not Austin."

There was initially no confirmation from the US government or Tice's family. However, the family had stated about a week ago that they had it on good authority that the 43-year-old was alive.

"We believe he is alive," said US President Joe Biden and said that a return to the USA was possible.

Tice was a freelance journalist in Syria when unknown persons abducted him at a checkpoint in a suburb of the capital Damascus in August 2012. A few weeks later, according to his family, a video emerged showing Austin with a group of gunmen.

In 2022, the US government announced that it knew with certainty "that he had been detained by the Syrian regime". The Syrian government denied this at the time.