He was thought to have disappeared. Travis Timmerman, a 29-year-old American from Missouri, was found alive in Damascus, Syria. Residents spotted him wandering barefoot in a neighborhood south of the city. He went missing in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, in May, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. An alert announcing the disappearance of the young man was then published by the Hungarian police in June.
In an interview with CBS News, the American declines his identity and assures that he was detained in a Syrian prison for more than six months, after entering the country on foot, without authorization, crossing the border with Lebanon . He had decided to go to Syria for Christian “spiritual reasons,” he told the channel.
We found Travis Timmerman from Urbana Missouri – an American prisoner liberated from one of Assad’s most notorious prisons. He’s fine. A bit dazed. Didn’t realize the regime had fallen until this morning. pic.twitter.com/kuQmWfp0nA
— Elizabeth Palmer (@CBSLizpalmer) December 12, 2024
According to his account, the door to his cell was broken down with a hammer on Monday by two men armed with AK-47s, the day after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. “It was broken, it woke me up,” he said. He is said to have left the prison with a large group of prisoners to try to reach Jordan.
A stay in prison “not too bad”
His stay in the Syrian prison “wasn’t too bad,” says Travis Timmerman. “I have never been beaten. The only negative was that I couldn’t go to the bathroom when I wanted. They only let me out three times a day to go there. »
He was even able to use a cell phone while in detention and spoke to his family three weeks ago. “I feel good. I’ve been fed and watered, so I feel good. » It is especially since his release from prison that he has had “a few moments of fear”, worried about not being able to find a place to sleep. But the Syrians came to his aid, concerned about his condition.
The rebel forces that brought down Bashar al-Assad’s regime have said they plan to close the dictator’s prisons and hunt down those involved in killing or torturing inmates.