Lebanese Christians Rejoice: Freed After Decades in Assad’s Prisons

Christians in Lebanon are celebrating the release of several prisoners who were abducted by the Syrian regime over several decades of occupation and who are now, finally, free after the sudden collapse of the Assad regime on Sunday.

L’Orient Today reported:

Souheil Hamawi, a Lebanese national detained in Syria for 33 years, has returned to his home in North Lebanon. Hamawi, who claimed he was arrested in December 1992 at his home in Chekka, arrived in his village accompanied by a brass band and was welcomed by relatives in an emotional reunion, according to our correspondent Michel Hallak.

In an interview with local television, Hamawi recounted his ordeal, stating that he had been arrested when his son was just 10 months old. Now a grandfather, Hamawi expressed eagerness to meet his family after decades apart. He revealed that he had been transferred between several Syrian regime prisons before ending up in Latakia’s coastal facility, where he was the only Lebanese detainee. For 15 years, his family had no information about his whereabouts, though they later managed to locate him and have occasional contact. Hamawi paid tribute to his wife for enduring what he described as significant hardships in his absence.

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While reports circulate of other Lebanese detainees being released, only one other case has been confirmed: Ali Hassan al-Ali, a man from Akkar, who was freed from Hama prison last week. However, al-Ali has not yet returned to Lebanon, according to his family.

Some of the missing Chistians were political activists; others were members of Christian militias that had been active during the Lebanese civil wars of the 20th century.

Syria dominated Lebanon for decades until it was eclipsed by Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, who propped up a faltering Assad regime while continuing to dominate Lebanese politics.

Many commenters on social media are outraged at former Lebanese President Michel Aoun, a Christian, for taking Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad at his word when the latter claimed that there were no more Lebanese prisoners in Syria.
Some are praising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose leadership of Israel during the ongoing war that was started by Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah last October ultimately resulted in the decimation of Hezbollah and the elimination of its leadership, leaving Assad defenseless.

Others faulted the Iranian regime itself, whose strategy of surrounding Israel with a “ring of fire” consisting of terrorist proxies ultimately failed with Hamas’s decision to launch the brutal October 7 terror attack, which underestimated the strength of the Israeli response.

While there is still widespread concern about the fate of Christians inside Syria, especially since the Syrian rebels who overthrew Assad are radical Islamists with ties to terror, there is broad delight at the demise of the Syrian regime.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.