Joe Biden has called for the immediate release of Austin Tice, the American journalist and former marine who disappeared in Syria in 2012, and who US authorities believe is being held by the Syrian government.
“This week marks 12 long, terrible years since American Austin Tice was abducted in Syria,” the US president said on Wednesday. “We have repeatedly pressed the government of Syria to work with us so that we can, at last, bring Austin home. Today, I once again call for his immediate release.”
Tice disappeared while reporting in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus in Syria on 13 August 2012. At the time, the former marine corps captain was working as a freelance journalist and photographer for a variety of news organizations including CBS, the Washington Post, and the McClatchy Company. Tice was awarded the 2012 George Polk award for war reporting for his work covering the civil war in Syria, along with journalist David Enders.
US authorities say that Tice was kidnapped and is being held by Syrian authorities, and have called on the Syrian government to release Tice.
“The freedom of the press is essential, and journalists like Austin play a critical role informing the public and holding those in power accountable,” Biden added in the statement on Wednesday. “We stand in solidarity with Austin, his family, and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad. I will continue to do everything possible to advocate for and pursue his release and support his loved ones until he is safely returned home.”
In a separate statement released on Wednesday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said that the US government “know the Syrian government has held Austin, and we have repeatedly offered to find a way to bring him home”.
“This has gone on for far too long,” Blinken said. “We call on the Syrian government to work with the United States to end Austin’s captivity and to provide an accounting for the fate of other Americans who went missing in Syria.
“Austin went to Syria to show the world the truth of what was going on there.” he added. “We’re not going to relent until we find a way to bring Austin’s unjust detention to an end.”
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Biden said in 2022 that the US government knew “with certainty” that Tice was being held by the Syrian government, claims that Syrian authorities have denied. The Syrian government has denied that it “kidnapped or is holding any American citizen on its territories” and has called the accusations made by the US government ‘“baseless”.
Biden’s statement on Wednesday comes just over a week after two senators – Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, and John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas – led a bipartisan effort and sent a letter requesting that the Biden administration “use all available means to secure Austin’s release” following the momentum of the historic prisoner swap with Russia earlier this month, which included the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
In early August, the Biden administration secured the largest prisoner swap between Moscow and the US since the cold war, and 16 people were freed from Russian custody.
