Top secret intelligence files uncovered by the BBC confirm for the first time that missing American journalist Austin Tice was imprisoned by the regime of the now-deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Former Syrian officials have also confirmed Mr Tice’s detention to the BBC.
The US government has previously stated that it believed he had been held by the Syrian government, but the Assad regime continuously denied this, and nothing was known about the details of his detention.
The intelligence files – along with testimony from several former regime officials – now reveal what happened to the journalist after his abduction.
Austin Tice vanished near the Syrian capital of Damascus in August 2012, just days after his 31st birthday. He had been working as a freelance journalist.
Around seven weeks later, a video posted online showed him blindfolded and with his hands bound being forced to recite an Islamic declaration of faith by a group of armed men.
However, the impression given – that Mr Tice had been abducted by a jihadist group – was quickly questioned by analysts and US officials, who said the scene “may have been staged”.
No group or government has ever claimed responsibility for his disappearance and he has not been heard from since, fuelling widespread speculation as to his whereabouts.
The BBC uncovered the material as part of an ongoing investigation that began over a year ago for a Radio 4 podcast series, while accompanying a Syrian investigator to an intelligence facility.
The intelligence files are the first evidence to surface of the Syrian regime’s detention of Mr Tice since search efforts began to find him following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in early December 2024.
The files labelled “Austin Tice” are comprised of communications from different branches of Syrian intelligence. Their authenticity has been verified by the BBC and law enforcement.
One communication, marked “top secret” shows that he was held in a detention facility in the capital Damascus in 2012.
Additional sources confirmed this to be in Tahouneh and a former senior Syrian intelligence officer also confirmed that Mr Tice had been held in Damascus by a paramilitary group.