Consider This from NPR - How A Pact Made In Prison May Have Saved An American's Life

Episode Date: December 14, 2021

Kevin Dawes, an American from California, traveled to Syria in 2012 with hopes of a launching a career as a foreign correspondent. But shortly after crossing the border he was arrested and jailed for three-and-a-half years. And he hasn't shared his story publicly until now.NPR correspondent Deborah Amos interviewed Dawes about his nightmarish experience in a Syrian prison, how he's seeking to bring the government to court, and how he hopes to help do the same for the family of a British doctor he met in the cell next to his. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Ten years ago, reporter Marine Olivierzy was in Libya covering the Arab Spring for NPR. At the makeshift cafeteria set up a couple of miles west of Sirte, a young man stands out in the crowd of disheveled fighters. Olivierzy was interviewing a Libyan militia that had overrun Muammar Gaddafi's hometown, and among the militia members was a medic with a distinct American accent. What's the most complicated procedure you had to do on the film? Actually, starting IV was the most complicated thing that I've done by myself. Generally speaking, though, I assist.

I'm more of an ambulance guy than anything else. That's Kevin Dawes, 29 years old at the time, from California. He told Olivier Zee that he had been traveling alongside the militia for weeks. He came to Libya as a medical aid worker, but he'd also brought a camera, hoping for a thrilling career as a wartime journalist. See the world, experience new things, get in way over my head, but, you know, ultimately survive and do well here, I think. He was part of this band of freelancers,

adventurers, medics, sometimes even fighters who wanted to be part of the Arab Spring. NPR correspondent Deborah Amos says Dawes got in way over his head when the story moved to Syria, and he moved with it. And within 48 hours after crossing into Syria, he was arrested, and he was jailed for three and a half years and tortured for the first year of his incarceration. I saw awful things.

I think they let me see that because they were certain they were going to be able to kill me. Consider this. Kevin Dawes has been on a harrowing journey of survival that still isn't quite over. He told his story first to NPR. And coming up, we'll hear about a pact he made with a fellow prisoner that may have saved his life. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Tuesday, December 14th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time, mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. Kevin Dawes was released from prison in Syria back in 2016. The Syrian government has freed an American freelance photographer. He's identified as Kevin Dawes was released from prison in Syria back in 2016. The Syrian government has freed an American freelance photographer. He's identified as Kevin Dawes. We can confirm that a U.S. citizen was released by Syrian authorities. And while his story was momentarily headline news, Dawes didn't speak about it publicly. Many people who've been through this don't speak about it when they first get home. NPR correspondent Deborah Amos again. She was the first reporter Kevin Dawes agreed to tell his story to after his release.

We should mention that this story includes descriptions of torture. Part of what influenced Dawes to open up was joining a Facebook group. Where there were other people, foreigners, one Canadian, one another American, who had been held in a Syrian prison, and they reached out to each other. This is the first time that Kevin Dawes had had any contact with people who had shared his experience, and he decided that it was time to tell his story. Hello, Deborah?

When I reach him in San Francisco, Kevin Dawes answers from his car. In a parking lot, commensurate with my homeless status. There are actually two turkey vultures here, amazingly enough. Mostly homeless since his release in 2016, he says he struggles with the physical and mental aftermath of horrific torture. I have permanent nerve damage in at least one foot and both my wrists. As far as being permanently disabled, that's a good question. I don't know.

Certainly everything does seem harder. As the Arab Spring unfolded a decade ago, Dawes joined an unofficial band of freelance journalists, adrenaline junkies, and medics, first in Libya and then in Syria. I thought I'd show up with a camera and go all the places nobody else did. And indeed, I found I could.

I broke many rules and was not well-liked. Professional journalists were wary of him and his changing roles. Part-time war photographer, self-taught medic. In an interview with NPR in 2011, he said he fought with rebels for weeks. When the story moved from Libya to Syria, Dawes moved too. In October 2012, he arrived at a Turkish hotel near the Syrian border lugging a helmet, a bulletproof vest, medical supplies, and hope that his luck would hold. A day after crossing into Syria, he disappeared. Soon after, he was listed as missing on the FBI website. Dawes describes his capture at a checkpoint by Syrian regime loyalists. Hooded and handcuffed, he was quickly transferred to a political prison

in the Syrian capital. Remember, these cells are all underground. There is no sunlight. Interrogations were cruel and constant. Well, let me see if I can imitate my interrogator. You are CIA. Who runs you? He would yell, and they would beat me. He became an unwilling witness to barbarous treatment inside the Syrian prison system. I saw awful things. I saw them actually torture children. I think they let me see that because they were certain they were going to be able to kill me. He wasn't the only foreigner held in a Syrian prison.

A few months after he was nabbed, a British citizen, Dr. Abbas Khan, was detained 48 hours after he crossed into Syria. Khan, an orthopedic surgeon and father of two, was moved by the plight of injured Syrian children, says his sister, Sarah Khan. Syria was kind of the talk at that time. She says her brother worked in a Turkish border hospital, but then decided to cross into Syria to work in a rebel field hospital in the winter of 2012. He got in on November 20th, and he was then obviously arrested on November 22nd. But within those 48 hours, I think he worked at four different field hospitals. Khan was also moved to Damascus to a military prison, and that's where he met Kevin Dawes. We met each other when we were in adjacent cells. We were able to speak to each other under the door. They would scald him with hot water and beat him. They did the same to me. These two desperate prisoners who could only whisper in the dark made a pact.

Whoever got out first would get news out of the one left behind. The Syrians were concealing the fact they were holding me at all. Sarah Khan picks up the story. When did you hear about Kevin Dawes? When did you know that he was in the picture? That was when my mother flew out to Damascus in July. In 2012, Fatima Khan was determined to find her son. And remarkably, she did. She was allowed to talk to him in person and even observe his court hearings. On Kevin Dawes, Sarah Khan says her brother kept his word. He insisted his mother alert the U.S. embassy. Suddenly, Dawes' treatment improved.

The torture stopped. They put me in a lit cell as opposed to the pitch-black lice dungeon I had been kept in until then. I owe Abbas a lot. But Khan's treatment only got worse. In December 2013, Khan's mother was invited to Syria. Officials assured her her son would be released and home soon. Sarah got updates by phone.

She's bought gifts for everybody, flowers, she's got biscuits, chocolates, everything. A man comes out in a white lab coat and says to her, I need to give you my condolences. And she's like, I don't understand. And they're like, your son killed himself this morning. Syrian government officials insisted Khan was depressed and had hanged himself, which made no sense to Dawes. In these cells, there's no way to hang yourself. There's nothing to hang yourself on. He had no reason to commit suicide, no reason to. He was going home. Khan's body was eventually shipped back to Britain, where an official inquest concluded that Abbas Khan had been killed by the Syrian regime.

Dawes was released three years after Khan died. In October, Dawes filed suit against the Syrian government in a U.S. district court in Washington, D.C. He's alleging torture and mistreatment. The Syrian government hasn't responded to the lawsuit nor to NPR's request for comment. But even with no response, Dawes is still eligible for compensation from a U.S. fund set up in 2015. It's the U.S. Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Fund, says his lawyer, Kirby Barra. So it's created an opportunity for the victims of this horrible, horrible, nightmarish treatment to actually get some compensation for what they

suffered. The Khan family plans legal action too against the Syrian regime in a British court, and they now have a key witness. I am his last witness. I know he was tortured. I can tell them all about the prison we were in. Kevin's testimony is the only one that we have in terms of actually somebody seeing him or hearing him being interrogated. Kevin Dawes, drawn to the Middle East to launch a journalism career,

will finally have his most important reporting role in a U.S. and a British court. Deborah Amos is still with us. And Deb, as you mentioned, Dawes is hoping to help the family of Dr. Abbas Khan find justice in addition to pursuing his own case against the Syrian government. Tell us about what they're up against. How difficult is it going to be to get Syria to respond, let alone try to win this case? Kevin Dawes, as a witness, makes a big difference to the Khan family. They finally have a witness to his torture and his detention. And this is something that has been missing for their case

for years. There was an inquest after Abbas Khan died in a Syrian prison, and that inquest officially said that he was killed by Syrian officials in that prison. But that is as far as the family has taken it so far. They do not have a fund in the British system. They will not be eligible for the same fund that Kevin Dawes is. So it's a different kind of legal case. And this case is coming as more Arab states are moving to normalize relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Some European countries are welcoming that, and Syria was recently welcomed back into the international police organization, Interpol. So could these cases get in the way of normalizing relations?

It is possible. And you can also argue that the Syrian regime believes that perhaps they will. There is a case in Germany that the verdict is expected in the early parts of July. This is a case about crimes against humanity. That will be news in Europe. It will remind European governments that this is a state that still can harass people who come back. Refugees from Europe who went back home, it is not safe for many of them. And that's what they say. So normalization is controversial in Europe and certainly among the asylum seekers who are in Europe waiting to hear what happens to them. NPR international correspondent Deborah Amos.

You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.