"He is in Syria. That is a certainty," his mother, Debra Tice, told US public radio NPR a few days ago. But the reality is that his whereabouts are still an unsolved mystery. The White House also assures that he is kidnapped by the Government of Bashar al Asad. However, in Damascus they deny having him in his custody. And no group has claimed responsibility for his capture. Meanwhile, his family hopes that he is alive and they can meet him again one day.
Austin Tice was a former US Marine who worked as a freelance photojournalist for outlets including The Washington Post, CBS, AFP and McClatchy News. One day in March 2012 he decided to head for Syria. The reason? Cover the conflict that began as a result of the popular revolt that began a year earlier against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. On August 13, the US authorities contacted him for the last time. They lost track of him in the town of Daraya, a suburb of the capital. Tice was 31 years old when he disappeared.
The last time his family saw him alive was in a 46-second YouTube video posted weeks after his capture. In the recording he was blindfolded. A group of armed men were forcing him to recite a prayer in Arabic. The journalist uttered "oh, Jesus" repeatedly with a deep tone of concern.
Last week, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Tice's disappearance, Biden declared that his administration knows "with certainty" that the Syrian authorities captured the reporter and again called on the country's government to "end this and help bring him back." . Despite this, Austin's mother, Debra Tice, believes that the White House is not doing enough to negotiate with Syria to release her son.
For its part, the Foreign Ministry of the Arab country denied this past Wednesday having kidnapped "any US citizen who entered its territory or resided in areas under the sovereignty and authority of the Syrian Government." In addition, it reiterates its absolute commitment "to the principles of international law."
The Syrian Foreign Ministry described the accusations as "misleading and illogical", and recalled in its note that Washington has admitted that the journalist and other US citizens entered Syrian territory "illegally" without government permission.
The US executive is willing to offer a reward of up to one million dollars in exchange for some information that leads to the location of the reporter and finally free him.
