DAMASCUS: Syrian citizen Mohammad Zakour adopted a method to escape fear and repression during the rule of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad that has stunned the world.
Mohammad Zakour, speaking to Al-Nahar newspaper, said security agencies arrested him twice during the early years of the Syrian revolution.
After his release, Zakour was warned by a relative that he could be arrested again. Fearing a third arrest, he decided to go into hiding instead.
He chose his grandfather’s house in Latakia, where with the help of his wife, Zakour bought construction materials to build a small wall. A narrow space behind the wall became his hiding place.
Only his wife knew that he was alive. She secretly provided him with food, water, clothes and medicines through a small opening in the wall.
When Zakour fell ill, his wife would consult a doctor and bring him the required medicines.
The couple kept his survival a secret from their children out of fear that they could accidentally reveal his whereabouts.
The children eventually grew up believing that their father had died. Zakour’s brother, who was living in Turkiye, even held a condolence gathering for him.
In reality, Zakour was living only a few metres away from his family, hidden behind the wall.
He could hear his children and watched them grow from his hiding place, but remained unable to reveal himself.
His 13-year ordeal finally ended on December 8, 2024, when he heard chants outside the house at dawn.
After asking his wife what had happened, he learned that Bashar al-Assad’s government had fallen. He then realised that he no longer needed to remain in hiding and came out after more than 13 years.
His wife then asked the children to move a refrigerator that had been placed in front of the opening and told them that their father was alive.
The children initially could not believe what they had heard. But moments later, after more than a decade, they saw their father emerge from his hiding place.
