Lebanese man who spent 32 years in Syrian prisons returns dwelling

A person who spent 32 years in a Syrian jail has lastly returned dwelling to Lebanon after an rebel offensive toppled Bashar al-Assad’s authorities.

In 1992, Suheil Hamwi labored as a dealer promoting varied items within the northern Lebanese city of Chekka. On the night of Eid il-Burbara, or St. Barbara’s Day – a vacation much like Halloween – a person got here to her door to purchase whiskey.

Mr Hamwi mentioned he left his 10-month-old son George along with his spouse and went to gather the whiskey from his automobile and accomplished the sale.

As he approached his car, a automobile stuffed with males stopped, he mentioned, forcing him to get in and taking him away.

It might be years earlier than his household heard from him once more.

Mr. Hamwi was amongst a whole bunch of Lebanese residents detained in the course of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005 and can be held in Syrian prisons for many years.

On Sunday, freedom got here to him and others unexpectedly: Prisoners who had heard rumors about Syrian opposition forces and their huge marketing campaign found that the guards had deserted their posts.

Mr. Hamwi and different prisoners have left, he mentioned, and he would quickly be among the many first from Lebanon to return to the nation.

“I am all the time afraid that this is not actual,” he advised The Related Press in an interview Tuesday from his dwelling — the identical one he left greater than three many years in the past.

This new actuality appears fragile, however, he says: “I discovered my freedom.”

For years after the night time of his disappearance, Mr. Hamwi’s household didn’t know his whereabouts. It was solely 16 years later that his spouse found he was imprisoned in Syria. Even then, the explanation for his detention remained unclear, Mr. Hamwi mentioned.

It took one other 4 years earlier than authorities lastly knowledgeable him of the accusation. He mentioned: He was arrested as a result of he was a member of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political occasion that additionally functioned as a militia in the course of the 15-year Lebanese civil struggle that led to 1990.

The occasion fought in opposition to Syrian forces and subsequently remained against the Syrian navy presence in Lebanon.

Mr Hamwi mentioned the jail interrogations have been enigmatic.

“They requested me my title, that of my dad and mom, my age and the place I got here from. That’s it,” he mentioned. Then he can be despatched again to his cell. “There was no lawyer, nothing in any respect.”

He mentioned he spent his early years in Syria’s infamous Saydnaya jail earlier than being transferred to different services, finally ending up in jail in Latakia. Torture marked his beginnings behind bars, he added, “nevertheless it stopped after some time.”

For years, he says, he lived in virtually full isolation. He was alone in a small cell, surrounded by different Lebanese detainees in addition to Palestinians and Iraqis.

In 2008, he says, his spouse was capable of go to him for the primary time. Then she happened every year.

Final week there was noise within the jail about what was taking place exterior. “However we didn’t know that this dream would come true,” Mr. Hamwi mentioned.

Early Sunday morning, chaos erupted when prisoners found the guards have been gone.

“The primary door opened,” Mr. Hamwi mentioned, describing how rebels stormed the jail and commenced opening cell doorways. “Then others adopted. And for many who could not open their doorways, they began going out by way of the partitions. »

The prisoners left “strolling in direction of the unknown,” he mentioned. “And I walked with them.”

Strangers on the road helped him return to Lebanon, Mr. Hamwi mentioned. He entered the nation by way of the Arida border put up in northern Lebanon, the place his household was ready for him on the opposite facet.

As Mr. Hamwi walked by way of his door, it was his two grandchildren who greeted him.

“That is the primary time I’ve met them,” Mr. Hamwi later advised AP, his voice tinged with disbelief.

In the lounge, Mr. Hamwi took pictures of the moments he had missed: George’s commencement portrait; George along with his spouse; Hamwi’s smiling spouse, Joséphine, along with his granddaughter Tala.

Grandson Chris was clinging to Mr. Hamwi’s hand, laughing as he shouted “Jeddo!” — Arabic for grandfather.

Mr. Hawmi went to a hospital for checks to evaluate the toll of 32 years of captivity. And he should relearn life exterior the jail partitions.

He hoped top-of-the-line moments was but to come back: his reunion along with his solely son George, an engineer working within the Gulf.

Of their first telephone name, Mr. Hamwi mentioned, George advised him the phrases he longed to listen to: “I miss you.” I really like you. I am ready to see you.