The man accused of being accountable for retaining the American journalist who disappeared Austin Tice mentioned that the Syrian president Estructured Bashar al-Assad ordered his execution, they advised the BBC safety sources.
The main basic Bassam at Hassan is a former commander of the republican guards who was a part of the inner circle of President Assad.
It was additionally the top of the workers of the nationwide protection forces (NDF), the paramilitary group that an investigation of the discovered BBC was responsible for retaining Mr. Tice after his kidnapping in 2012.
The discovery was made as a part of a subsequent podcast of the BBC Radio 4 on Austin Tice’s disappearance.
The American journalist disappeared close to the Syrian capital of Damascus in August 2012, a number of days after his thirty first birthday.
He had labored as a contract journalist and was leaving Syria when he had been kidnapped.
The fall regime continuously denied the information of the place it was: the BBC investigation confirmed that it was false and that Mr. Tice was held in Damascus.
At Hassan, who’s topic to penalties within the United Kingdom, the EU, Canadian and US, supervised the construction during which Mr. Tice.
At the start of this yr, it’s mentioned that he met the American legislation enforcement officers not less than 3 times in Lebanon.
Sources say that not less than a type of conferences was total of the United States Embassy.
During these conversations, it’s mentioned that he advised the investigators of the FBI and the CIA that the president now obeys Assad ordered the execution of the American journalist who disappeared Austin Tice.
Sources which are conversant in the conversations have reported to the BBC that Hassan claims to have initially tried to dissuade President Assad from killing Mr. Tice, however which in the long run transmitted this order and which was positioned.
It is believed that Hassan has offered doable positions for the journalist’s physique. Sources which are conversant in FBI investigations have mentioned that efforts are underway to verify the validity of Al Hassan’s statements and that analysis ought to occur to the websites during which Mr Tice’s physique might be.
Western intelligence sources who’re conversant in the main points of the affirmation of Al Hassan in keeping with which President Assad gave the order to kill Mr. Tice are skeptical on the truth that he would have straight given such an schooling, since it’s recognized for mechanisms for having distanced themselves from such actions.
The BBC accompanied Mr Tice’s mom, Debra, to Beirut whereas approaching the thirteenth anniversary of the loss of life of her son. After discovering that Bassam at Hassan had spoken to US officers, Debra Tice tried to satisfy the identical at Hassan and contacted the American embassy that required help.
He mentioned to the BBC: “I simply need to have the ability to speak to him as a mom and ask him about my son”. His try to satisfy Hassan was not profitable.
When he was requested of Al Hassan’s statements, he mentioned that his feeling was that “he nourished by the FBI a narrative that wished to listen to” to assist them shut the case.
Debra Tice led an tireless and decided marketing campaign to carry house his son and stays dedicated to discovering him. He mentioned to the BBC: “I’m his mom, I nonetheless consider that my son is alive and that he’ll stroll free”.
Separately, a former member of the ENF with an intimate information of Austin Tice’s detention advised the BBC “that Austin’s worth was included” and that it was a “paper” that might be performed in diplomatic negotiations with the United States.
Bassam at Hassan was thought-about one in every of President Assad’s most trusted consultants. After the collapse of the Syrian regime in December, Hassan had fled to Iran.
Sources near him advised the BBC that whereas he was in Iran, Hassan obtained a cellphone name and he was requested to return to Lebanon to satisfy with US officers. It is believed that he was given the assure that he wouldn’t have been detained.
For years, U.S. consecutive presidents have mentioned that Mr. Tice, a former Marine captain of the United States, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was a jurisprudence scholar of the distinguished Georgetown University of Washington, was alive.
In December 2024, then President Joe Biden advised the Journalists of the White House that “we consider it’s alive” and that “we predict we will get it again, however we nonetheless do not have direct checks”.
