Real Survival Stories - Kidnapped at Gunpoint: 81 Days in Captivity

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

In 2013 a celebrated journalist travels to war-torn Syria. But near the front line he’s taken hostage by a group of rebel fighters. Over the next 81 days Jonathan Alpeyrie will get to know his captors extremely well. Harrowing, absurd, surreal… the ordeal will push his body and his mind to the limit. And with the threat of execution always hanging over him, forming a bond with his kidnappers will be crucial to his survival…   A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins.   Written by Duncan Barrett | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Jacob Booth, Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley.   For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions   If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frales with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. It's April the 29th, 2013. A tiny village somewhere in war-torn Syria. A white pickup truck pulls away from an abandoned villa. trundling onto a dusty, cratered road.

Inside the vehicle is photojournalist Jonathan Alperi, 34 years old, tall and athletic. Born in Paris and raised between France and the United States, he combines the cool charm of a cosmopolitan Frenchman with the rugged, all-American physique of a former swimming champ. Right now, John, Jonathan is traveling with a distinctly motley band of associates. At the wheel is his local fixer, Alphoruk, smart, lanky man in his 20s.

For the past week or so, he's been Jonathan's indispensable right-hand man in Syria. Translator, guide, chauffeur, and more. Next to Alpharuk, riding shotgun in the front passenger seat, is Abu Farras, a commander in the Free Syrian Army, one of a number of rebel outfits, warring against the country's dictatorial government. Bearded, heavy set, dressed in army camo with a traditional Syrian kaffir on his head, Abu Farras is not a man you'd want to mess with. One of his soldiers stands in the bed of the truck,

gripping the roof of the vehicle as it jolts up and down on the pothold desert roads. He is keeping a careful watch as they head west toward a looming mountain range. on the back seat next to Jonathan is a man he knows only as no problem another fixer who as his nickname suggests is confident he can arrange anything his clients might wish for it's no problem was promised to get him up to the front lines but what jonathan doesn't know yet is that at least one of the men in the truck has probably already betrayed him It's amazing how people can smile at you and look at you straight and they all know you're going to get kidnapped. You know, you trust them. Sometimes you just have to trust people.

After about 15 minutes on the road, the truck pulls up at what looks like a rebel checkpoint. From this walled, concrete structure, three men in ski masks appear, each of them brandishing a machine gun. Slowly they approach the vehicle, their feet kicking up dust on the sandy road. Abu Farras winds down his window.

Without warning, the passenger side door is yanked open by one of the armed men. Abu Farras is hauled out of the vehicle, onto the ground. Jonathan barely has time to react before the same thing is happening to him. In a matter of seconds, every man from the truck is on his knees. Guns pointed at their heads. Another masked individual emerges from the conquers. structure. Jonathan's hands are tied behind his back.

His t-shirt is pulled up over his head, covering his eyes. Everything goes black. It's so quick, you don't have time to react, to wonder what is happening. At the time I remember now thinking I was being kidnapped, I just thought it was a big misunderstanding. And sometimes when it's that real and that intense, you don't realize. realize what is going on really. Jonathan feels something cool and hard pressed against the side of his head,

the barrel of an AK-47. Then comes the most deafening sound he's ever heard. With his ears ringing, it takes a few moments for the realization to hit him. He's still alive. The shot was intended to scare him, not kill him. They break you right from the gecko. All of this is very thorough. It's calculated. It's meant to really bring you down, break you,

and to remind you that what your position is is very much at the bottom. Jonathan feels a hand gripping his arm. He's pulled to his feet. Through his dark cotton t-shirt, he can make out the indistinct forms of the two fixers still kneeling on the ground, shaking with fear. It's either genuine or, if they're in on this, an extremely convincing performance.

An SUV emerges from behind the concrete shelter, and the three of them are man handled into the back. Then the car speeds off, wheels kicking up the arid earth as they go. Jonathan feels the vehicle accelerate as they zoom along the rough desert roads, leaving his freedom behind them in the dirt. And we drove away very fast and like captivity started like that. Never wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to real survival stories.

These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. people suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet Jonathan Ulperi, a celebrated photojournalist. In 2013, Jonathan is on his third trip to Syria when he is kidnapped by a group of rebel fighters. Over the next 81 days, he'll get to know his captors extremely well, though he'll never fully understand what they have in store for him. It will be a harrowing ordeal, testing both his body and his mind. In a country where journalists face execution by extremist groups,

forming a rapport with his kidnappers, will be crucial to his survival. They were doing mock executions on me. That was probably the most difficult moments for me. Like, you're trembling, right? Like, your whole body kind of collapses on itself. I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is real survival stories. It's ten minutes.

It's ten minutes later. The kidnapper's car pulls up outside a small house. Jonathan and the others are dragged inside. The driver roughs him up and shouts in his face, but not able to speak Arabic, Jonathan has no idea what he's saying. Inside, one of his captors pulls his t-shirt back down, swapping his makeshift blindfold for a kaffir tied tightly around his head. During the changeover, Jonathan gets a glimpse of his surroundings, the room that will become his home for the foreseeable future. He spots a bunk bed decorated with stickers, Mickey Mouse, the Care Bears, as well as a number of other unfamiliar cartoon characters.

This must have been the kids' room, back when this safe house in the middle of a war zone, was a family home. Now the cheerful environs are little more than a prison cell. They handcuffed me and I was just kind of lying me down in this bedroom. And I knew there were two other guys in that room, young guys, which were going to become people I spend a lot of time with. Then they were telling me there was a misunderstanding and they was going to be fine, but they're just playing with you. That's all.

Dozens of questions and doubts present themselves. What exactly do his captors want with him? Is he a hostage that they can ransom for cash? A valuable commodity they have every incentive to care for, or is he a sacrificial lamb waiting for slaughter? Your brain is in complete disarray, so from one second to the next, you can think right to terrible, right? And that was a constant up and down, which is actually truly exhausting psychologically. Within the first few hours, Jonathan is kicked and abused and then suddenly given some hot food. This fluctuation between cruelty and coming.

kindness sets the tone for what's to come. The emotional and psychological seesaw is more than he can cope with. He passes out on the bedroom floor. That night, the two fixes, Al-Farouk and the so-called No Problem, are driven away in the SUV. Jonathan will never see either of them again, so he'll never know for sure what happened, who betrayed him, or how exactly the deception was orchestrated. The only thing that's certain is that he is now alone and in the greatest peril of his life. So how did Jonathan find himself here?

Born in France, but largely educated in America, Jonathan studied ancient history before going on to work for local newspapers in Chicago. In his early 20s, he began traveling with his job, becoming a distinguished photojournalist covering conflicts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Now in his mid-30s and a seasoned war photographer, he's had more than his share of close shaves. On a previous trip to Syria, for example,

he witnessed the early stages of the country's civil war between its authoritarian leader Bashar al-Assad and the rebel groups opposing him. During this visit, Jonathan and his friend Georgios narrowly escaped being blown to pieces by government forces. I was already pretty experienced in covering conflicts, but I had a feeling this was a different level in terms of the intensity of the fighting. When it started, very quickly I went in with a buddy of mine, a Greek photographer. And what I remember the most is how disorganized the rebellion was at the time. We didn't really have any trust in their ability.

trust in their abilities to fight. We were staying with a bunch of rebels, and I just had a bad feeling about these guys, so we ended up forcing them to have us relocate, and the next day they were all killed. They got hit by a tank shell. If Jonathan had not trusted his gut and moved away from the group, he too would have perished.

The threat of death is constant in a country ravaged by war. So when a chance to return to Syria presented itself, his mother begged him not to go. My mother is a bit of a witch in the sense that she is able to read things. I mean, her sensibility of her surrounding is quite attuned. So they usually listen to her. This time, I didn't. My mother raised me very independently.

So the consequence of that is you create a human being who's, like her, fiercely independent, so I was going to make my own way. Not that Jonathan is blasé about the risks his job entails. I'm always anxious before I go to a place. So I've canceled trips. I've known now. I just didn't feel it,

so I didn't do it, especially when I physically leave my house, and I log the door, and then I always tell myself, oh, Jonathan, maybe just don't go, and you just go home and move on and do something else. When it comes to Syria, Jonathan has always tried to play it safe,

although for a war photographer, safe is very much a relative town. On his previous trips, he photographed affected areas, but stayed more on the fringes of the conflict. This time around, however, he is taking a different route. So I decided to push the envelope a little bit, and I went to an area which was an hour and a half north

of Damascus, and in order to get that, you have to go through Lebanon. And that itself is tricky. It was tricky, but I had very good contacts in Lebanon, a very powerful Christian family from the north, and they had many contacts, and the other words who set things up for me to enter the war zones and get picked up at rebels and end up at the front lines. It's Jonathan's Lebanese contacts who introduced him to his fixer Al-Faruk, and even offered to pay for his services. Let's give you a little context. When I was covering the Battle of Mosul in northern Iraq,

the average price for daily rate for a fixer to go to the front was 800 bucks a day. Now you have better ones and lesser ones, and it's a business. The good ones, they charge more. That fixer in Syria was a friend of these contacts I had in Lebanon, so I didn't have to pay for it. It was a favor to me. He was a local guy with the motorcycles who would get around on a motorcycle every time there was bombing and stuff of that.

I would just go shoot it. And then I'd come back and file for my agency at the time. Together, Jonathan and Alfaroog have visited local bombsites, hospitals and morgues, paying witness to the devastating consequences of the regime's attacks on the area. But after a week or so, Jonathan started to believe he could do better. After a while, it got just photographically just the same. Photography is, it's a big responsibility because you only repeat. present a very fraction of a reality, which is that frame that you photographed. And you also are

responsible when it comes to the violence that you want to show. In my opinion, a good photographer, a good photo does not show death and violence straight up. That's easy. Everybody can do that. It's the insinuation of something, in my opinion, that's much more powerful. In the same way that When you see an impactful movie, and the end leaves you wandering, and then your imagination, the symbolic part of your brain, kicks in and tries to understand or imagine something. And I think it's the same for photography. If you can insinuate things more than just being right in your face,

I think that's a better talent. With this goal in mind, Jonathan felt it was important for him to get up close with the rebel fighters. The idea was to get closer to the front, another front, really, where there was more infantry clashes. I was looking for that. That was the idea to embed me with another group that was actually a bit more active tactically. That was more interesting for me. This endeavor was obviously always going to be high risk. But Jonathan could have no idea where it would lead him.

betrayed, blindfolded, and whisked away by masked men. And now he is more immersed in the action than he is more immersed in the action. ever before, handcuffed to a bunk bed with guns pointed at his head. ...searchlight Pictures presents The Roses, only in theaters August 29th. From the director of Meet the Parents and the writer of Poor Things, comes The Roses, starring Academy Award winner Olivia Coleman, Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Sandberg, Kate McKinnon and Alison Janney, a hilarious new comedy filled with drama, excitement, and a little bit of hatred, proving that marriage isn't always a bed of roses.

See The Roses, only in theaters, August 29th. Get tickets now. By the time dawn breaks on Jonathan's first morning in captivity, his two fixes, his two allies, are both out of the picture. He's all alone with just the motley band of soldiers who have captured him for company. What exactly this dangerous group of rebels wants with him is still murky. Under their control, time becomes warped. Days merged together as things quickly settle into a depressingly familiar routine. I was getting tortured almost every day for a while.

The guys were ordered two. I don't think they would take me to the living room, and they would just get a beaten there. It was just like, they broke my ribs, two of them. And actually, I played on that because, I mean, it was very painful and I couldn't breathe, but I even acted even more. So they would feel bad about it, and then it stopped. And it was weird because they would do it. And then when they were done, they were like, hey, I would eat with them.

They would give me a cigarette. You know, when it's happening, it's okay. It was more like the anticipation of when it would happen again. That was the issue. Otherwise, when it's happening, you just bite your lip and take it. That's how I viewed it. And then it's weird because it would end, and then they would be friendly with me,

and I would be okay with that. In between beatings, Jonathan gets to know his captors better. Some of them speak a little English, and they're keen to learn more. One young man, Medj, starts swapping vocab with him, teaching Jonathan words in Arabic in exchange for their English translations. Most of them were actually quite nice kids. It's the irony of it all. They were nice guys.

There was one called Rabia. I remember he was a young guy. He was 18. He was always very nice to me. Mej, he was the other one in the bedroom. He was also very nice. These guys were more curious about me than anything else. And they would ask me all these questions,

and often they were asking me about women. I remember Mej asked me to take a picture of him with his cell phone because he had a woman he liked in another village and they asked me advice how to talk to her. So I actually got a bit intimate with you. these guys. To the Syrian teenagers, this photojournalist who lives in New York City is an intriguing curiosity. Tall, handsome, pale-skinned.

But at one point, while the group is gathered around a grainy TV screen, Jonathan's all-American good looks threatened to land him in hot water. They had this TV, and because we were close to the Lebanese border, they could catch channels and they were playing the Green Lantern. And I'll never forget, they looked at me like this, and they were, like, pointing at the TV. The Syrians aren't the first ones to notice that Jonathan bears a passing resemblance

to the Green Lantern star, Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds. Not exactly a look-like, but to young men who've never seen a westerner in the flesh before. That got me really worried. Because the first thing I clicked into my mind was, I'm going to become more expensive because they think I'm a famous actor and I'm not. And I kept telling them, this is someone else,

and they really weren't sure. I think, a lot of those guys are local peasants. Like, there's local guys, you know. They've never left their village that kind, so they're genuine in that sense, but they're a bit naive. If the Syrians believe Jonathan to be a celebrity, they may demand outlandish sums of money to release him.

It takes all of his powers of persuasion to convince them that they haven't. actually kidnapped the Green Lantern. But it turns out their leader, an overweight man called Abu Talal, has developed a new, even more unsettling theory about him. He's not a war photographer at all. He's a CIA agent. They were more worried about CIA, stuff like that, which is always a possibility.

Our profession is a good cover. It's happened, so, you know, why not? I was really worried by being accused of being a spy, and therefore my situation would be far worse than would be if I was just a photographer one day Jonathan is led blindfolded into the living room when the kaffir is whipped off his head he finds an audience ready and waiting 20 rebels at least sat around in a semicircle with expectant looks on their faces if not for the thick beards and army uniforms they might be a class of school kids on a visit to the theater the show they're about to see is an intense one the

interrogation begins shouting fists bangs on the table the rebels demand to know if Jonathan is a spy asking me these questions over and over thinking that I would break and just give up but I never did I never broke mentally I was like, I'm not going to give them what they want because then I'm even more screwed. And trust me, they tried. I wonder if they respected that somehow because I was like holding tough, you know?

Some of the guys were looking at me differently after that. A week later, Abu Talal brings out the big guns. Although in this case, the biggest gun available is actually a simple kitchen knife. This time, there's no crowd gathered in the living room, just a couple of chairs either side. side of a wooden table.

Jonathan takes a seat, opposite a man in a desert khaki camouflage uniform. Then in comes one of his regular guards, an older man who he thinks used to be a police officer. The last time he saw this particular jailer, the two of them shared a cigarette. Now though, the former Bobby is very much in bad cop mode. He walks over to the table with a stony look on his face and a large kitchen knife in each hand. As Jonathan watches, his eyes wide open, the man begins sharpening the blades against each other. Then suddenly, he sets one of the knives down on the table and walks around until he is standing directly behind Jonathan. He feels a strong hand grabbing him by the hair, pulling his head backwards, exposing his neck.

You're trembling, right, like your whole body is kind of collapses on itself. It's almost like you're an animal, and that leaves a very long-term impression, which does not really dwindle over time. He can feel the cold metal against his skin, the pressure of the blade. After the longest few seconds of Jonathan's life, his captor withdraws the knife and releases him. then casually takes a seat to the table. I tremble for the rest of the day. You feel cold, you're exhausted, and it's a bit like when you took a very cold shower and you can't warm up after that. It's a bit like that.

That man, he was an older guy, I remember. After that, he was always super nice to me. He didn't want to have anything to do with him, but he would come up to me. He said, yeah, it's okay, you know, it's just a game. He's son of a bitch, like, okay. But yeah, it was, that was tough. While the kidnappers learn more about Jonathan, eventually giving up on the idea that he's secretly a CIA spy, he is learning more about them too, including where exactly they fit in the pantheon of rebel groups currently fighting the Assad regime. Fortunately for him, these guys are not religious extremists, not jihadists. Their interest in him is purely financial.

There are different degrees. You know, you have ISIS, Al-Nusra, and then it goes down the ladder to opportunistic criminal gangs who are operating in Syria. These guys, I would say, were pretty regular guys. They were Muslims, but a historical context in which they found themselves into

forced them to make a decision. You join, you don't, you flee to Turkey, whatever you decide to do. So, yes, I was very lucky for that. The threat of death still hangs heavy in the air. But the more time Jonathan spends with his captors, the more it seems they don't want any real harm to come to him if they can help it. And so, with his life in the rebel's hands, he might as well try to get on with him. But it's more than that.

He begins to genuinely like them as well. I did befriend most of them. I was a conscious decision for them to see me more as a human being rather than just merchandise. Which you are, this is pretty much what you are, you're worth money. But even if his captors value him more alive than dead, there are other extreme, external dangers to contend with. The war outside grows increasingly heavy. Strapped to the bed most of the days, Jonathan is a sitting duck.

In the darkness, beneath his blindfold, he can feel the ground vibrate and hear bone-shattering explosions tearing through the hard earth just outside. The safe house begins suffering serious damage from government shelling. When I was handcuffed and blindfolded and there was heavy shelling, that was bad because I couldn't see

and the windows were breaking or trembling and then it was like the explosions and everything and the machine gun fire and stuff like that. You're just sitting there, you have no idea what the hell's going on. So that was tough. I knew I was going to get killed like that. Not by them, but by government forces, just bombing the hell of us.

So, at the end, they were dealing with losing a battle, and they had to take care of me. And I think for them, that was a logistical nightmare. A logistical nightmare, a liability, a burden. In the eyes of his captors, Jonathan might suddenly be more trouble than he's worth. So far, there has been no specific talk of a ransom. It's not clear they even know how to go about negotiating one. And if that is the case, there's one very dangerous potential alternative. The gang might decide to sell him to another group instead,

one less invested in keeping their merchandise alive and well, and more interested in making a spectacle of him. Other groups are trying to buy me, and they were much more hardcore Islamists, and that would have been a different story altogether. One night, after three weeks in captivity, Jonathan is sleeping uncomfortably in his creaky bed. For once, all is still and silent,

save for the odd light whistle of wind. suddenly in the blackness there is a shuffle of feet Jonathan is shaken awake and told to put on some clothes groggy he pulls himself up and gets himself together as quickly as he can as soon as he's ready one of his captors roughly grabs him by the bicep and drags him to an SUV parked outside the safe house there is a sombre look on his jailer's face he barely looks at Jonathan as he's bundled into the backseat

The engine rumbles into life and they're away. As they speed through the night, Jonathan has no idea if he'll ever return. I thought it was being executed. I didn't know. They don't tell you. You fall into this black hole when you're... The anxiety level is very intense because you don't know.

The wheels spin across the dirt-laden ground as Jonathan's taken. to who knows where. You can barely breathe. But then, after a short drive, the SUV pulls up outside the gates of a large villa. Jonathan is pulled out of the car and escorted inside. Compared to the dingy, abandoned safe house,

this new home is a palace. The second house were basically nice villas that were emptied out because of the fighting. And suddenly you realize just being relocated. With the old safe house under constant bombardment, the rebels have decided to move Jonathan to a safer position, just up the road from their own HQ. The handsome, sprawling villas here even have pools. But while the decor might be a little more salubrious, there's no escaping the fact that there's a war on. For a start, every room is stacked with weapons, from 9mm pistols to AK-47s, even RPG launches.

As he gaups at the extensive armory, a wild thought presents itself. If Jonathan grabbed one of these guns now, he could probably take out his jailers in one fell swoop. But the idea quickly dissipates, as he's taken to a bedroom and swiftly restrained again. They've given him a longer leash than before, but it's still attached to the bars on the bedroom window. He's still alive. but freedom appears no nearer. The rebels, at any rate, don't appear to view Jonathan as a threat. As the days go by, he is afforded more small luxuries.

They even let him swim in one of the pools. It's the closest Jonathan has felt to his old life since he came to Syria a month earlier. I was doing laps on my back and I remember looking at the blue sky and for a brief second I felt free. just that moment. The rebels, meanwhile, are impressed with Jonathan's form in the water. He's been an avid swimmer since childhood, qualifying for the Junior Olympics at high school, and later joining a competitive water polo team.

One day, the local warlord approaches him with a surprising request. He asks Jonathan to teach him how to swim. His name is Esad, not to be confused with Asad, the Syrian dictator. A heavyset, hairy fellow, he is in charge of around 1,000 rebels in the area. And in a pair of bright orange and red shorts, he cuts quite a figure on the pool side. The warlord showed up in Hawaiian swim trunks and you can't make this up. And I had to teach him how to swim while all the soldiers in the offices were around the pool laughing

because he went from being the local warlord to being someone that was holding in my arms is through trying to have him float and self sink right to the bottom. Soon, the warlord's swimming lessons have become a regular part of Jonathan's routine. And Esad begins spending time at the villa where Jonathan is staying too, joining the men charged with guarding the Westerner in their regular prayer sessions. A somewhat lapsed Catholic, Jonathan has been getting back in touch with his own beliefs recently. so when his captors invite him to join them in prayer he agrees though while the men around him praise Allah

Jonathan focuses on his own faith I was reciting Christian Catholic prayers after when I was a kid and that was a bit of a rebellion because that was quite blasphemous to do something like this for them and so that was a bit of a resistance surely for me didn't mean anything else to anyone else it's dusk Jonathan is praying alone

on a balcony overlooking the valley towards Lebanon five kilometers away he sits on a white plastic garden chair waiting for the sun to set it's become a daily ritual a key part of his new routine when the sun hits the peak of a particular mountain he always begins reciting

the Lord's Prayer. He murmurs, our father, who art in heaven. But this time his devotion is interrupted by a visit from two of his young jailers. They have something to tell him, something that's hard to believe. Rabia and Newell came up on the balcony I was in and told me, oh, you're free, you're free, told me I was going to be released. I didn't believe it, but they kind of rushed me. and I grabbed whatever I had, which is not much.

And they put me in a car and they drove me away. It was very quick. I just remember turning around. I was in the back seat of this SUV kind of car. And I remember Mej, Rabia, and Noob just waving at me goodbye like I was leaving as summer came. It's a surreal sight as Jonathan looks out of the car's back window. His youthful Syrian captors bidding him a fond farewell. By this point, he knows not to count his chance.

chickens before they're hatched. The idea that he's really on his way home to New York seems distinctly far-fetched. They bump along desert roads. Rocks and rubble fly upwards, dislodged by the wheels of the car. In time, they arrive in the city of Yabrut, not far from where Jonathan was kidnapped two months earlier. The SUV pulls up outside an apartment block. Two of the men traveling with him go inside. Jonathan is left to wait in the vehicle. Ten minutes pass, 20, an hour. Eventually they return and tell him to follow them inside.

They bring him to a living room. A group of men are sat around in the midst of an animated conversation. Jonathan has no idea what they're saying, but it's clear some kind of negotiation. is taking place. And it doesn't take him long to realize that he is the merchandise being haggled over. Even more worrying, the men bartering over him right now

are dressed in the characteristic black uniforms of the Shabiyah, a shadowy militia known to be fiercely loyal to the Assad regime. Unlike the rebels, these guys are neatly dressed and clean-shaven, one of them even sports a pair of Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses. But their reputation for brutality precedes them. The Shabia are known for their sadistic methods of torture. And compared to the rag-tag band of outlaws, Jonathan's been staying with the past couple of months. These are the professionals.

It was like 20 of them, all heavily armed, all dressed in black, like military uniforms. And I knew these were government guys and I was being sold for the government. And then I started freaking out. The deal is done. and Jonathan is handed over but his new captors don't behave in the way their brutal reputation suggests they might

sitting in the back of another SUV Jonathan is handed a black cap and uniform just like theirs to help him blend in then he receives some plight but firm instructions when we get to a checkpoint

keep your mouth shut he does as he's told Sure enough, soon they're breezing through checkpoint after checkpoint, heading out of rebel territory and closer to the heart of the regime. Before long, they're approaching the Syrian capital, Damascus. It's okay, the guy in the Raybans tells him, you're safe now. then he adds not entirely convincingly you're with the good guys he hands jonathan his mobile phone there's a message on the screen from a wealthy local who claims to have paid his four hundred and fifty thousand dollar ransom you're free it reads you're a very lucky man jonathan texts back awkwardly thank you still not entirely sure he can trust what he's being told The SUV

Wends through the streets of the city As they approach a wealthy neighborhood Jonathan spots a large shopping wall up ahead They pull into the car park And the guy in the sunglasses goes inside He emerges half an hour later Wheeling a heavy case behind him He has bought supplies for Jonathan

Clean clothes, toothpaste Perhaps they really are here to help him Not long after they arrive at the plush house of Jonathan's mysterious benefactor. I met together to pay my ransom, and the Lebanese politicians were convinced him to do so. The full ins and outs of Jonathan's release are unclear. In times of war, things often are. But it seems his benefactor, a man named Mr. Abud, is a local oligarch

who has paid these black-clad militiamen to deliver the ransom money and then deliver Jonathan safely to him. He is acting for himself in this matter, not the government, though his precise motives aren't entirely obvious. Perhaps he and the Lebanese politician who convinced him to act hoped to gain international favour. Jonathan's kidnapping is a high-profile one after all, and helping out in this matter may prove beneficial down the line.

Who knows? Whatever the case, Jonathan can finally breathe a little easier. My level of anxiety decreased quite a bit once I got into that house because first of all, as I entered the massive living room, there was CNN on this massive big screen TV. So that alone for some reason, you know, it's something familiar, right? So it brings down the anxiety. And then there was a banquet of incredible food and dishes.

Amazing. And I also hadn't eaten well in months. But Jonathan's ordeal isn't over quite yet. He still has to get back across the border into Lebanon. Fortunately, his new friends have a plan for that as well. Abu personally drives him to the Lebanese border. When they get there, he pops open the boot of his car and tells Jonathan to get inside. Abud will have to pay off the guards on the Lebanese side. Jonathan just has to stay quiet and hope it all works out.

I was ready to go, and there was no anxiety in it. I was just, I was ready for the plan and whatever I needed to do, I would do it. So I was very much on board. I didn't hesitate. They really felt like this was the real thing. And that finally I was going to be free. So this was a complete switch in my psyche. For the next 15 minutes, Jonathan waits in the darkness of the trunk,

listening to the sound of border guards questioning his driver in Arabic. Eventually, they are on their way again. A few miles down the road, they pull over, and the lid springs open. In the early morning light, Jonathan clambers out, stretches his aching limbs, and breathes in the fresh, cool air of Lebanese dawn. While his benefactor turns around and heads back to Syria, Jonathan is placed into another vehicle by two of the wealthy man's associates, armed goons, who, despite their friendly demeanor and sharp suits,

looked like they know how to handle themselves. It's an hour's drive to downtown Beirut. The men lead Jonathan up to a penthouse apartment, a stone throw from the beach. From the balcony, he can see the sun glinting on the eastern Mediterranean. But there'll be no swimming today. The guards tell him to stay put while their friends square things

with the Lebanese authorities on his behalf. In the meantime, they'll be keeping an eye on him. They do at least give Jonathan a mobile phone so he can let his parents know that he's alive. His father almost collapses from the shock. For the past two months, he has been working with Jonathan's contacts in Lebanon, trying to get him released, and having to make horrible decisions in the process. Because things almost got very bad.

As Jonathan once feared, an extremist Islamist group, were indeed planning on buying him. And his father was prepping some drastic plans before that happened. What I found out through my father is that there was a plan to attack the very first. village where I was being held and killed my captors and freed them bring me back to Lebanon about 150 soldiers mercenaries paid for on the border and they were ready to go fortunately I was released a day or two before the assault was launched right now Jonathan may be out of harm's way but he is still under lock and key guarded by burly men carrying guns. And there's no knowing when, or even if, they'll get around to actually sending him back

home. But not long after speaking to his father, he receives a call from the French ambassador to Lebanon. Are you able to leave, he asks. Can you make an escape? Jonathan tells him, I think so. The ambassador instructs him to make his way to the Four Seasons Hotel, about a hundred yards down the street from the apartment block. Someone from the embassy will meet him there. Jonathan picks his moment carefully, waiting until the guards are enjoying a cigarette on the balcony before making a run for it. The feeling of freedom that I had there was so intense that no one was going to stop me. And I rushed to the four seasons and the police officers were already there. They grabbed me and they put me back of their car. And they drove to the French

embassy. After 81 days as a hostage, the French embassy is a balm to both body and soul. Housed in a hundred-year-old Ottoman palace, it's a far cry from the shell-damaged safe houses Jonathan's been living in for the past two months. He spends his days doing laps in the embassy pool, surrounded by palm trees, and his evenings dining with a French ambassador and his wife. But despite the luxurious environs, Jonathan finds it hard to relax.

The first night I spoke at the embassy when I woke up, I have this insane panic at that because I opened my eyes and I didn't know where I was. My brain, for some reason, could not put teeter two together and I'm looking around the room and I still don't know where I am. It took about 20 minutes. There's a very weird 20 minutes where I panicked, I had no idea where I was.

Jonathan will have to stay at the embassy for a while until his legal problems are ironed out. Many people want to speak to him, including the FBI. For the second time, in two months, he has to fend off accusations that he is secretly a foreign agent. They're worried that if I had converters someday, they did ask him and I said, him wrong.

It is protocol for them to find out, because if they do, if they do turn, into something else, then they have a security couple. So it's normal for them to find that, but they realize very quickly that they had nothing to feel. After five days as a guest of the French ambassador, Jonathan's legal problems are all sorted. He is free to catch a plane back to Paris.

And from there, to his home in New York. Finally, his ordeal is really over. I consider myself a very resilient individual, so I'm often able to bounce by very quickly. Now, obviously, you never come back the same. Some kidnappings are worse than others. Mine was brutal because of the fighting. Some of the torturing, it was only three months, right? Some of these other guys in Rockar, they got captured for a half, two years.

So I was lucky in that sense. Back in New York, Jonathan begins working with an organization that helps the families of kidnapped America. in Syria and other war zones around the world. Through this work he even meets President Obama. He also meets Diane Foley, whose son James, a US journalist, was kidnapped in Syria the previous year. After being held for over two years, Foley is murdered by Islamic State. In August 2014, they release a video of his execution in the Syrian desert, titled A Message to America.

It is a case of there but for the grace of God go I. Despite the ever-present dangers and despite his kidnapping, Jonathan continues his photography work today. Not taking a backward step, he's gone on to cover the war in Ukraine. Though his experiences in Syria have left an indelible. have left an indelible mark. It stays with you. Every time I hear firecrackers or even thunder or even a subway coming, it just kicks me right back in.

I just remember these moments and there are many of them of going through shelling. And that always gets to me. There's no way around it. I think I will always have that, soldiers have that, it's normal. So there are consequences of these kinds of experiences. Looking back, Jonathan says he attributes his survival in Syria to one thing above all else. Luck. Things could have gone away, and I would still be there or dead.

Some people believe in a greater good, whether it's God or just the universal cosmos as a whole, or just pure luck or circumstances. I don't know what it is, but when you look into the details of it, that should not be, you know. I mean, it's just unbelievable to me. In the next episode, we meet Mick Dolman, a seafarer from Melbourne, Australia. In October 1973, Mick boards the Blythe Star, a merchant vessel docked in Tasmania. It's due to sail from the port of Hobart to the northwest of the island. The journey is scheduled to take two days. But Mick will end up at sea for far longer than that, as he and his crewmates find

themselves stranded in a vulnerable life raft. The hellish experience will involve near starvation, brutal weather, physical turmoil and tragedy, as it becomes apparent that survival won't be possible for everyone on board. That's next time on real survival stories. Listen today without ads and without waiting a week by joining Noisa Plus. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started.