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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.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mohammad Zakour, speaking to Al-Nahar newspaper, said security agencies arrested him twice during the early years of the Syrian revolution.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He chose his grandfather\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n When Zakour fell ill, his wife would consult a doctor and bring him the required medicines.<\/p>\n The couple kept his survival a secret from their children out of fear that they could accidentally reveal his whereabouts.<\/p>\n The children eventually grew up believing that their father had died. Zakour\u2019s brother, who was living in Turkiye, even held a condolence gathering for him.<\/p>\n In reality, Zakour was living only a few metres away from his family, hidden behind the wall.<\/p>\n He could hear his children and watched them grow from his hiding place, but remained unable to reveal himself.<\/p>\n His 13-year ordeal finally ended on December 8, 2024, when he heard chants outside the house at dawn.<\/p>\n After asking his wife what had happened, he learned that Bashar al-Assad\u2019s government had fallen. He then realised that he no longer needed to remain in hiding and came out after more than 13 years.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n