Media presenter Yosry Fouda revealed details published for the first time in his book "In harm's way: from al-Qaeda strongholds to ISIS breeding grounds" about his arrest and detention for three days by the Syrian Intelligence.
Fouda's new book is published by Dar El Shorouk, an independent Egyptian publishing house.
Fouda recounted that on his return from Iraq, which he illegally entered through the Syrian-Iraqi border in 2006 as part of his investigative report on how jihadists joined the Iraqi resistance following the US occupation of Iraq, thre people in civilian attire appeared as ghosts in the fading light of his car. The three stood beside a police car, one of them holding an automatic rifle.
The intelligence's hotel
Fouda was driven along with his other two companions, Uday and Abu Laith, to a small border point after the armed men identified him. The Syrian security on border contacted Damascus before taking the three detainees to an inn in the city of Qamishli to wash and rest before heading to Damascus in the morning.
Fouda describes the way they entered the inn as abnormal. "We did not get into the inn like guests enter any hotel through the usual check-in procedures. A man led us directly through the stairs to the second floor, and one of the workers in this humble small hotel asked Uday and Abu Laith to accompany him to their rooms while Colonel Iyad Zein took me to a small reception room."
How mean!
Fouda remembered a previous visit to Damascus, accompanied by former Director General of Al Jazeera Channel Mohamed Jassem al-Ali, when he was preparing an investigative report about October 1973 war. "After we completed the check-in procedures in the lobby, a strange phenomenon caught my eye and was then the subject of fooling with Abu Jassem when we shared room numbers."
"My room is 407, what about you?" "My rooom is 307". I hurried to the rest and discovered that one is in room 207 and the other in room 107. What a nice coincidence! But my curiosity did not rest easily. Later, I asked someone I trust and he told me that these are most probably rooms under surveillance because it is cheaper for them to connect wires through a single wall from top to bottom instead of scattering them in different rooms."
"Cheaper? Cheaper? Wow! Even when they are watching us they are being miserable and sparing the price of surveillance which we have originally paid for from our toil and sweat? How mean!"
After long hours of waiting in the hotel and more than five hours of investigations by officers of the Syrian Intelligence Zein and Zahy Assaad, the two officers finalized their report and decided to complete investigations in Damascus, while keeping Abu Laith, the guide, in Qamishli.
Fouda tells that he decided not to leave without making sure his guide would be safe. As a result of his insistence and after a few phone calls by Syrian investigators Abu Laith was deported to Iraq.
International Court of Justice
Abu Laith crossed to Iraq, while Abu Uday accompanied Fouda and an officer of the Syrian Intelligence to the capital Damascus.
On their way from Qamishli to Damascus, the driver passed by a building that had no distinctive features and seemed boring like other Syrian security Intelligence branches, according to Fouda.
"Eyes in every corner, light weapons, and an informant hands you over an informant to hand you over to another until you find yourself on the sofa in a modest office connected to another office through an internal closed door."
The famous presenter tells of an altercation between him and a Syrian investigators after the officer, in civilian attire, rushed into the room, addressed Fouda in a loud aggressive tone, and cast a file on the desk, saying nervously: "So what? What for God's sake? No permission? No respect? No decency? What? You have no answer?"
Fouda responded: "I am just waiting for you to finish your words. Are you done?"
The officer said: "Not done. And I can keep talking from now on till the morning. Do you know what we are capable of doing to you now? Do you? Do you know or not?"
Fouda: "I know very well and I know I have broken the international law intentionally and violated the sovereignty of two states in one night. Please! Spare these useless insults and the loud voice. If you have an official accusation go on, introduce yourself to me, file a claim, and God willing we will meet at the International Court of Justice."
The officer: "What? What court?"
Farewell Damascus
Following the altercation between Fouda and the Syrian officer, representative of the Syrian Information Ministry, named by Fouda in his book as Feras, attended to the mysterious building.
The Information Ministry representative asked Fouda to rest in a hotel he chooses until he met with former Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal in the morning the next day.
A friendly encounter between Fouda and Bilal at the latter's office had taken place before Fouda left Damascus heading to London.
"I learned afterwards that contacts took place over two days, between Damascus and Al Jazeera management," Fouda said, explaining how his three-day arrest by the Syrian Intelligence had ended.
An experience to be hardly repeated
Fouda describes the experience of his arrest, to which he devoted the final chapters of book, as an experience that could hardly be repeated on a personal and professional levels as it taught him lessons he would never forget.
Fouda added he hopes his experience would be at least a source of inspiration for his colleague journalists who are pursuing investigative journalism.
