Suheil Hamwi spent 32 years in a Syrian prison, and now, after an offensive by insurgents that toppled the government of Bashar Assad, he's finally returned to his home in Lebanon, per the AP. In 1992, Hamwi worked as a merchant, selling various goods in the town of Chekka in northern Lebanon. On the night of Eid il-Burbara, or St. Barbara's Day—a holiday similar to Halloween—a man came to his door to buy some whiskey. Hamwi said he handed his 10-month-old son, George, to his wife and went to his car to fetch the whiskey and make the sale. As Hamwi approached his vehicle, a car filled with men pulled up, he said, forcing him inside and taking him away. It would be years before his family heard from him again.
Hamwi was one of hundreds of Lebanese citizens detained during Syria's occupation of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005 and believed to be held in Syrian prisons for decades. On Sunday, freedom came to him and others unexpectedly—prisoners who'd heard rumors about Syria's opposition forces and their sweeping campaign found that guards had abandoned their posts at the prison in Latakia. Hamwi and other prisoners left, he said, and he would soon be among the first from Lebanon to reenter the country. "I'm still scared this might not be real," he told the AP Tuesday from the home he left more than three decades ago. After strangers on the street helped guide him back to Lebanon, he was welcomed home by two grandchildren he'd never met.
For years after the night of his disappearance, Hamwi's family didn't know where he was. It wasn't until 16 years later that his wife discovered he was imprisoned in Syria. Even then, the reason for his detention remained unclear, Hamwi said. Prison interrogations were cryptic. "They asked for my name, my parents' names, my age, and where I was from. That's all," he said. Then he would be sent back to his cell. "There was no lawyer, no nothing."
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It took another four years before authorities finally told him the charge, he said: He was detained because he was a member of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party that also functioned as a militia during the 15-year Lebanese civil war that ended in 1990. The party fought against Syrian forces and remained opposed to Syria's military presence in Lebanon afterward. He said he spent his first years in Saydnaya prison, where he was tortured, before being transferred to other facilities. This new reality feels fragile, but, he said, "I found my freedom." (More Syria stories.)
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