‘End this’ Biden tells Syria 10 years after Austin Tice abduction | Freedom of the Press News

The Biden administration implored the Syrian authorities to work with america to return Tice dwelling.

US President Joe Biden reaffirmed his dedication to returning journalist Austin Tice dwelling and implored the Syrian authorities to come back to an settlement to safe his launch 10 years after his abduction.

“We all know with certainty that he has been held by the Syrian regime,” Biden mentioned in an announcement Wednesday. “We’ve repeatedly requested the federal government of Syria to work with us in order that we are able to carry Austin dwelling.”

The Tice household “deserves solutions”, Biden mentioned, reiterating that the return of US residents “held hostage or wrongfully detained overseas” is his administration’s highest precedence.

Final month Biden signed an govt order that enables the US authorities to sanction these concerned within the detentions and for US officers to share data with the households in regards to the standing of the instances of their family members.

The ten-year anniversary of Tice’s captivity comes as US efforts to get well residents imprisoned abroad are within the highlight. US basketball star Brittney Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan are each being held in Russia, and the Biden administration has acknowledged that they’re being “wrongfully detained”. The US has made a “critical supply” to Russia for a prisoner swap for his or her launch, senior officers have mentioned.

Tice travelled to Syria to cowl the nation’s ongoing battle, and labored as a contract photojournalist for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy information, The Washington Submit, CBS and different information organisations earlier than he was kidnapped within the capital metropolis of Damascus in August 2012. Apart from a “proof of life video just a few weeks later”, there was no official data on whether or not he’s alive or lifeless, his household has mentioned.

Biden met with Tice’s mother and father Marc and Debra Tice in Might, when he reiterated his dedication to bringing their son dwelling.

In an announcement launched Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned that each day with out their son provides to the household’s “unfathomable ordeal” and that the administration would do “every little thing doable to see to it that Austin comes dwelling”.

Such assurances have been provided earlier than. Former US President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo likewise promised to carry Tice dwelling, saying there was “no increased precedence … than the restoration and return of Individuals lacking overseas”.

Trump wrote a letter to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in March 2020 asking Syria “to work with us to seek out and return Austin”, however the effort was not profitable.

Based on the press freedom group Reporters With out Borders, 512 media employees are presently imprisoned world wide, and 34 have been killed because the starting of the yr.