The 29-year-old Christian Travis Timmerman was on a pilgrimage when he was arrested after crossing the border into Syria from Lebanon in June. He was interrogated for several hours, suspected of being a spy and imprisoned in Damascus.
Timmerman was never beaten, but often heard men being mistreated in the cells next door. He also heard imprisoned women singing and taking care of their children.
The cell was spartan – Timmerman had a mattress, a water bucket and two toilet buckets. He had three breaks a day and the Muslim Friday prayer helped him keep track of the weeks.
"Broke in the door"
On Monday, he was freed after the rebels with the Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took power in the country.
The liberators came into the prison and broke in the door (to the cell), he says in a phone interview with AP.
It was chaotic. Timmerman heard gunfire and it took a while before he understood that it was partly people firing celebratory shots into the air.
It was an agitated atmosphere. It was unclear if the guards were still there. I didn't know if they (the rebels) were taking us into a war zone, says Timmerman.
Called a doctor
After a few days in Damascus, he simply started walking south, towards Jordan. A Syrian family saw the lone man walking without shoes along the road and let him come home to them.
I gave him food and called a doctor, says the 68-year-old garbage collector Mosaid al-Rifai.
Timmerman is now recovering in Syria while the rebels are trying to find a way to hand him over to the US authorities, according to the American organization SETF, which supports the opposition in Syria and has engaged in his case.
