CNN: Former Syrian regime Major General: Austin Tice was executed on direct orders from Bashar al Assad
In a new development regarding the fate of the missing American reporter, Austin Tice, Major General Bassam al Hassan, the former security advisor to former Syrian President Bashar al Assad, revealed shocking details concerning the fate of the American journalist, who disappeared in Syria in 2012.
In a private interview by CNN inside al Hassan’s apartment in Beirut, he confirmed that Tice was executed in 2013 on the direct orders of Assad, and that the execution was carried out by a member of the “National Defense Forces,” the militia that al Hassan himself founded.
These confessions, made after the fall of the regime in December 2014, opened the door to new testimonies from former officials.
Major General Safwan Bahloul, one of these officials, revealed that Tice managed to temporarily escape from the al Tahounah military complex in Damascus before being re-arrested and transferred to Hassan’s office, where all contact with him was lost.
Despite al Hassan’s confession, the FBI remains skeptical of his credibility, especially after he failed a lie detector test.
Intelligence sources suggest that al Hassan may be trying to exonerate himself or to claim the $10 million reward offered by the US for information leading to the capture of Tice.
The Tice family, for their part, refuse to accept his death, as his mother, Debra Tice, who visited Damascus this year and met with the Syrian transitional president, Ahmed al Sharaa, said, “Austin is alive, and we look forward to seeing him free”.
A federal investigator confirms that efforts to recover Tice are ongoing, along with an active investigation aimed at achieving justice in this complex case.
According to CNN, the new Syrian authorities are cooperating with Washington in an attempt to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Tice, one of the most prominent investigative journalists who covered the Syrian war and paid a heavy price for it.
