Who is the mysterious man who was released from a notorious prison in Syria

Al-Batajneh, 83, from Irbid, a city in the far north of Jordan, said that in 1986, Osama asked to travel to Syria for a week during the summer break before his senior year of high school. More than three decades later, al-Batayne received the news he and his family had been praying for. A video has emerged of a man walking out of Saydnaye prison near the Syrian capital Damascus, saying: "I'm from Irbid."

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Photo: Reuters
Photo: Reuters
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

After the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, the Jordanian Bashir al-Batajne eagerly awaited the return of his son Osama, who disappeared in Syria 38 years ago.

Al-Batajneh, 83, from Irbid, a city in the far north of Jordan, said Osama asked in 1986 to travel to Syria for a week during the summer break before his senior year of high school.

But he didn't come back.

More than three decades later, al-Batayne received the news he and his family had been praying for.

A video has emerged of a man walking out of Saydnaye prison near the Syrian capital Damascus, saying: "I'm from Irbid."

Then the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that a Jordanian citizen named Osama had arrived in Jordan after he was found.

However, the man lost his memory.

Soon, the authorities organized a meeting between the freed prisoner and the al-Batajna family in Ibrid.

"He held my hand for a long time and started kissing it," al-Batajne told the BBC.

Osama was a "skeleton," he said, adding: "He had lost his memory and looked terrible... All his features had changed."

Osama's sister told the BBC that he referred to their mother by name and appeared to recognize himself in old family photographs.

But then an unexpected twist happened.

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The man was taken to a hospital in Amman, the capital of Jordan, where a DNA test was performed on him, which revealed that he was not actually related to the al-Batajna family.

Then, several contradictory claims about the identity of this man appeared on social networks.

Someone on Facebook said the man in the video was a Syrian from Tartus, a port on the Mediterranean Sea, and that they were in prison together.

Another woman claimed on Facebook that the man was from the village of Kafrun Sadea near Tartus and that he was "kidnapped by Syrian intelligence in Beirut in 1986".

Catalina Sade says the man looks like her cousin, Habib Sade, who she believes was kidnapped in the Lebanese capital and taken to a Syrian prison.

She says that two and a half years ago, the family received news that Sade, her grandfather's brother, was in Saydnaji prison, a notorious military complex where tens of thousands of people who opposed the Syrian authorities were imprisoned.

The family hopes that DNA testing will prove that the ex-prisoner is their missing relative.

"We will send the test results to Jordan where the missing person is, and the sample will be taken from my grandfather who lives in the village of Kafrun Sade," Sade told the BBC.

"My grandfather will be relieved if he finds his brother," she added.

Former Jordanian labor minister Nedal al-Batajneh, who was with the unidentified man after he arrived in Jordan, said he had received several calls from people who believed the man was their relative who had been released from prison.

Nedal asked families who believe they are related to this man to do DNA tests and send the results.

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Meanwhile in Jordan, Kasim Baštavi and his family think the freed man is Baštavi's cousin Ahmed.

Bastavi told the BBC that his cousin was a Palestinian fighter who was kidnapped in Lebanon and taken to Syria.

In 1995, a man freed from Saydnaya visited the family and told them that Ahmed was in that prison.

They tried to reach him in prison, but were threatened by the security forces in Syria, Bastavi said.

The Bastavi family also plans to do a DNA test to determine if the man is their missing relative.

"We are waiting for God's grace"

Al-Batajna's family are desperate after a DNA test showed they are not related to the released prisoner.

"We can do nothing and wait for God's mercy," Osama's brother Mohamed al-Batajneh told the BBC.

The father tried everything he could to find any information about his son, and the mother lost her sight due to grief and passed away a few years ago, the family says.

"Since he was arrested, we have been searching for him relentlessly and trying to communicate with people in Syria to find out something about him, whether he is alive or dead," said Mohamed al-Batajneh.

He says he is worried about the rumors that bodies were dissolved in acid in Sajdnaji prison.

But the family does not lose hope and plans to continue the search for their missing relative.

Watch the video: The search for missing prisoners in Syria

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