３３年ぶりにアサド政権下の刑務所から解放　レバノン人男性、帰郷

【ベイルートＡＦＰ＝時事】シリアのバッシャール・アサド政権下で当局に捕らわれ、３３年ぶりに自由の身となったスハイル・ハマウィさん（６１）が９日、レバノン北部の町チェッカの自宅に戻り、家族に心からの歓迎を受けた。（写真は、３３年ぶりにシリアの刑務所から解放されレバノンへ帰国したスハイル・ハマウィさん）
　前日８日、シリアではアサド氏が国外脱出し、反政府勢力が首都ダマスカスを制圧。アサド政権下で悪名をはせた監獄制度から数千人の収容者を解放した。
　その中の一人だったハマウィさんはＡＦＰに「きょう、もう一度息ができるようになった気がする。この世で最も素晴らしいものは自由だ」と喜びの涙を浮かべながら話した。
　レバノンでは１９７５年から９０年まで続いた内戦の勃発直後に進駐したシリア軍の手によって、数千人が消息を絶ったとされる。安否を懸念する多数の家族にとって、ハマウィさんの解放は新たな希望となっている。
　ハマウィさんは、悪名高いサイドナヤ刑務所を含む複数の刑務所に移送され、最終的にはシリア沿岸部ラタキア県の刑務所に収容されていたと話す。
　支えになったのは、妻と息子への愛だという。
　夫との再会を喜ぶ妻のホムシさんは、「３３年前のある夜、彼ら（シリア当局）がわが家にやって来た。ドアをノックし、夫に話があると言った。それから１１年間、夫の行方は分からなかった」と話した。
　ハマウィさんの居場所を突き止めた後、１０年以上を費やしてシリア各地の刑務所にいる夫の元を訪ね、いつか再び一緒に暮らせることを願っていたという。
　ハマウィさんの双子の弟ニコラスさんはＡＦＰに「兄は英雄以上の存在だ。獄中生活に耐え、きょう、３３年間待ち望んでいた自由を手に入れた」と語った。
　人権団体によると、レバノンでは内戦中、アサド氏の父、故ハフェズ・アサド前シリア大統領によって数千人の男女・子どもが行方不明になったとみられている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/12/10-17:01）

In the northern Lebanon town of Chekka, Suheil Hamawi received a heartfelt welcome as he returned home Monday after languishing for 33 years in deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's jails.
A day earlier, as Assad fled the country, Islamist-led rebels captured the Syrian capital and released thousands of prisoners from his notorious jail system.
Today I feel like I can breathe again. The best thing in this world is freedom, Hamawi, 61, told AFP, visibly tearing up from joy.
Hamawi's release gave renewed hope to hundreds of families in Lebanon who have demanded to know of the fate of thousands of prisoners believed to have disappeared at the hands of Syrian troops who entered Lebanon shortly after the outbreak of the 1975-1990 civil war.
Hamawi said he was moved from one prison to another, even spending time in the notorious Saydnaya facility where he wrote poetry, before ending up in a jail in the coastal Latakia region.
His love for his wife Josephine Homsi and for his son fuelled him during his time in prison.
I was far away but she was my source of strength, the other was my son, he said.
Homsi was overjoyed to be reunited with her husband.
Thirty-three years ago, they came to this house, knocked on our door one evening and told my husband: we need to talk to you. Then he disappeared for 11 years, Homsi said.
After she managed to track him down, she spent more than a decade visiting him in Syrian prisons, she said, hoping they would one day be reunited.
Rights groups say thousands of men, women and children disappeared at the hands of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's late father, during Lebanon's civil war.
Hamawi's twin Nicolas told AFP seeing his long lost brother had given him a new sense of purpose.
Today, we've been reborn, he said, adding the pair now felt truly like twins again.
My brother is more than a hero. He endured life in prison, and today he has returned to live in freedom like he has been longing to for 33 years, he said.
For three decades, Syria was a dominant military and political force in Lebanon, before withdrawing its troops in 2005 under international pressure after the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri.
I waited a lot, I suffered a lot, but I achieved freedom, Hamawi said.