By Anadolu Staff
DAMASCUS, Syria (AA) - Anadolu on Thursday captured footage of Travis Pete Timmerman, a US citizen who had been missing for months, after his release from a detention center in the Syrian capital Damascus.
According to Timmerman, he was released from Palestine Branch (Far Falastin), a detention and torture center in Damascus, as thousands of detainees were freed after the collapse of the Baath regime on Sunday.
Timmerman told Anadolu that he was captured by Syrian border security forces seven months ago while he was in the mountains between Lebanon and Syria.
He said he had traveled from the US to do the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca, made his way to Europe in March, and arrived in Zahle in eastern Lebanon in May before entering Syria.
Police in the southern US state of Missouri had reported that Timmerman was last in contact on June 2. Officials said he was last seen on May 28 at the International Baptist Church in Budapest, Hungary.
Budapest police filed a missing person report for him on Aug. 26.
Timmerman’s release follows the regime's collapse, which led to mass prisoner releases across Syria.
A 2017 investigation by Amnesty International concluded that murders and torture at Syria’s notorious Sednaya prison since 2011 were part of a widespread and systematic attack on Syria’s civilian population and constituted crimes against humanity.
Bashar Assad, Syria’s leader for 24 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Sunday, ending the rule of the Baath Party, which had been in power since 1963.