This is the incredible moment an American ‘pilgrim’ was found in Syria after spending seven months as a prisoner under murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime. 

The man, identified as 29-year-old Missouri native Travis Timmerman, revealed he had been trying to travel through the country on a Christian pilgrimage when he was seized by Assad’s forces after entering Syria on foot from the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle seven months ago. 

Though he was initially believed to have been American journalist Austin Tice, who has been held in Syria for the last 12 years after being kidnapped while reporting on the Syrian Civil War, these reports were quickly dismissed after he gave an interview.  

In a video interview with Al Arabiya, Timmerman, wearing a dark gray hoodie with no shoes, said he heard torture on a ‘daily’ basis in Assad’s detention centres. 

He told CBS News that he was released from prison after seven months by two armed men who broke down his prison door with a hammer on Monday. 

‘My door was busted down, it woke me up,’ Timmerman said. ‘I thought the guards were still there, so I thought the warfare could have been more active than it ended up being… Once we got out, there was no resistance, there was no real fighting.’ 

He said he had been making his way out of the prison he was being kept in following Assad’s fall last week. 

Timmerman said he left the prison with a large group, and was heading towards Jordan before he ended up in the Syrian town of Al-Dhiyabiya. 

Travis Pete Timmerman, a U.S. citizen who went missing in Syria, speaks to press after being released from the Sednaya Prison after the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, Syria on December 12, 2024

US citizen Travis Pete Timmerman, who went missing in Syria speaks during an exclusive interview in Damascus, Syria on December 12, 2024

An undated picture of Travis before he was taken into Syrian custody 

He said he ‘had a few moments of fear’, and still hadn’t processed the fact that he was now a free man. 

He told CBS: ‘I still haven’t really thought about that. I’ve been more worried about finding a place to sleep each night since then. So I’ve been working, really.’

He said in his interview with Al Arabiya that ‘it was mostly young men’ who he heard being tortured while imprisoned, adding that he ‘never heard a woman scream’ while he was incarcerated.

He said that despite this, he was personally treated well. 

‘I was fed, I was watered. The one difficulty was that I couldn’t go to the bathroom when I wanted. I was only let out three times a day to go to the bathroom. Other than that, I was not beaten. The guards treated me decently.’

He was even allowed to use a phone to call his family three weeks ago.  

Timmerman told NBC that he had been in Europe before he embarked on his pilgrimage to Syria visa Lebanon in late May. 

Authorities in Missouri and Budapest, Hungary, earlier this year put out missing persons reports for a man called Pete Timmerman, while Hungarian cops named him as ‘Travis’ Pete Timmerman.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a bulletin that he had gone missing from Budapest on May 28. 

Timmerman was found in the town of Al-Dhiyabiya, southeast of Damascus

Rebels said they found him and sent a doctor to treat him after he was found 

Travis Pete Timmerman, a U.S. citizen who went missing in Syria, speaks to press after being found following the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, Syria on December 12, 2024

He said he ‘had a few moments of fear’, and still hadn’t processed the fact that he was now a free man

Authorities in Missouri and Budapest, Hungary, earlier this year put out missing persons reports for a man called Pete Timmerman, while Hungarian cops named him as ‘Travis’ Pete Timmerman

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a bulletin that he had gone missing from Budapest

Budapest authorities meanwhile launched a request for information on ‘Travis Pete Timmerman’, revealing he was last seen at a church and had since ‘left for an unknown location, with no sign of life.’ 

A video released by Syrian rebels showed Timmerman sleeping in a house in the town of al-Dhiyabiya. In the video, Timmerman could be seen lying on a mattress under a blanket in what appeared to be a private house.

An unidentified rebel appeared to confuse him with American journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing for the last 12 years after Assad’s forces kidnapped him while he was reporting on the Syrian Civil War. 

He also claimed that Timmerman had been tortured by Assad’s henchmen, which the American later denied. 

The rebel said: ‘In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful, [here is the] American journalist, We don’t even know what his name is. 

‘A brother found him [in] Al-Dhiyabiya in the early hours of this morning, they found this American person. 

‘After the Americans lost him for seven months in the prison system, [Assad’s] ungodly [guards] were torturing him in Sednaya – This journalist is now safe and among his family. We have been treating him well Good. We brought the doctor and he is cured, praise be to God, Lord of the world.

‘[The doctor] checked his health completely.

Timmerman is from Missouri, and described himself as a ‘Christian pilgrim’

He was detained after trying to enter Syria illegally

Timmerman said he left the prison with a large group, and was heading towards Jordan before he ended up in the Syrian town of Al-Dhiyabiya

Timmerman said he was treated well while he was in prison 

Timmerman said he heard torture on a ‘daily’ basis

‘They found him in the orchards. He was naked and barefoot. [Here is a] message to all the world – This man was at the criminal at the hands of the gangs of Assad, who do not recognise neither humanity nor human rights, will be delivered safely, God willing to the people of America.’

Timmerman is one of thousands of prisoners who have been released in the wake of the fall of the Assad regime over the weekend. 

Assad was notorious for overseeing torture in Syrian prisons. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that nearly 60,000 people were tortured and killed in his prisons. 

DailyMail.com has contacted the US State Department for comment.  

More to follow.