"The Syrian people cannot be humiliated. The revolution for freedom and dignity has triumphed," reads one of the walls of Saydnaya prison, Dec. 11, 2022. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine)
Charles Mansour, the moukhtar of Zgharta, confirmed to L'Orient Today on Saturday that DNA tests have returned negative for a former detainee from Syria’s Saydnaya prison, who had been transferred to Jordan following the release of prisoners from this emblematic center of the fallen Bashar al-Assad regime. The individual was thought to be a Lebanese Army soldier imprisoned in Syria. The family of the missing Lebanese soldier confirmed the information.
The National News Agency (NNA) had reported that a former Saydnaya prisoner, mistakenly brought to Jordan by a Jordanian family who believed him to be their son, might have been Sayed Chahid Batour, a Lebanese soldier from Zgharta, northern Lebanon, who disappeared in 1990. His brother, Rabih Batour, had told L'Orient Today that DNA tests were underway to identify the ex-detainee.
The test results were expected on Saturday. ''We didn’t know whether he was dead or in Syria,'' said Rabih Batour, noting that their late father had traveled to Syria three times in efforts to obtain information.
