‘My dream since I was a kid’: Son of one of Syria’s longest-serving political prisoners tells of joy at dad’s release

The son of one of Syria’s longest-running political prisoners has told of the ‘surreal’ moment he spoke to his dad following his release in the rebel takeover after more than four decades in jail.

Waill Tatari shed tears of joy after a brief phone call with Ragheed al-Tatari, who was incarcerated by the Assad regime in 1981.

The 69-year-old was freed from Tartou prison on Sunday as the various rebel groups deposed Bashar al-Assad’s government.  

Ragheed, a former Syrian Air Force pilot who was jailed after refusing to bomb civilian areas in Homs the previous year, was able to have a brief phone call with his son, who lives in Alberta, Canada.

Waill, 43, told Metro the call was a childhood dream which has finally come true after the family had repeatedly had their hopes dashed following rumours of his dad’s release in previous years. 

His voice full of emotion, Waill said: ‘I’m really, really excited and happy that he’s out. It’s been 43 years and now finally he’s free. I managed to talk to him for two minutes but I’m still waiting for him to contact me again.

‘We asked how each other were and then he said, “I’m sorry it’s too noisy here” and he would call me back again.  

‘That was literally it, now I’m waiting.’ 

Waill was struck by his father’s lawyer telling him that the free man was going out near a beach in Tartou to have breakfast. 

Waill said: ‘It sounds so simple but I thought, “oh my father went out to have breakfast outside.”

‘It sounds weird to say and it seems silly but I was crying after that, thinking that my father is going outside after 43 years.’ 

Waill’s mother, Salma Mousa, was still pregnant with him when the combat pilot was first arrested in 1980.

Ragheed was moved between Syria’s notorious prisons before ending up at the jail in the port city of Tartous, which lies on the Mediterranean coast in the east of the country.

He is among scores of prisoners freed from jails in different parts of the country, including at Sednaya in Rif Dimashq, known as the ‘human slaughterhouse’ due to the use of torture and executions.

The last time the father and son spoke was eight years ago when they both phoned in to a landline in Syria and struggled to hear each other as the call was relayed by a third party.

Waill, a married freelance graphic, computer games and app designer, had to leave his homeland in 2013 after he received death threats due to his involvement in the anti-Assad movement which rose out of the Arab Spring. The year also marked the last time he saw his father, when he and his mother were allowed to visit him at a jail in Damascus.

At one point before he left Syria, Waill was called and told: ‘We’re going to slaughter you, you son of a traitor.’ 

Waill is now hopeful of being reunited with his father, whose onward movements from the jail were being organised by his lawyer today.  

‘At first I didn’t believe it, because during these years, many times there were rumours that my father would be out,’ he reflected.   

‘This is something I was dreaming about since I was a kid.

‘And you know how you hear rumours when you’re a kid, like your dad might come tonight? I heard this a lot and this feeling like I’m just awake, waiting for my dad to come, like finally I’m going to meet him.  

‘I remember at one time we even prepared dinner and we were waiting because we thought he was going to be out but it never happened.  

‘So after all these years when you keep hearing one thing and you know it’s not going to happen and then it happened.

‘I can’t describe how I am feeling now..it’s so surreal.  

‘I still can’t believe it.’ 

President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has fallen after a two-week rebel offensive in which the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was the driving force. Ragheed had initially been imprisoned under the rule of Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad, who died in June 2000.

The end of the dynasty responsible for arresting and imprisoning a citizen who had been a loyal serviceman brings the possibility of a reunion between the dad and son after many false starts.

Waill has heard different stories about his dad, considered a model pilot until his principled stand, and hopes to hear his experiences first-hand.  

‘There are a lot of stories circulating now,’ he said.  

‘To be honest with you, some I know are true but some are not, so I’m just waiting for him to tell the truth, I want the truth to come out from him.  

‘It’s his story and now he’s out, he can tell it.’  

Ragheed and a fellow pilot fell foul of the regime after returning to their airbase in Aleppo without executing the airstrikes, according to the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison, which has campaigned for his and other political prisoners’ rights.

The group says that Ragheed managed to relocate to Jordan and then Egypt after his arrest but failed to gain asylum through the UN and was immediately apprehended at Damascus airport when he returned to his homeland in 1981.  

His release comes too late for his wife, Salma Mousa, who died in 2019 in Malaysia, where the family had gone because the country does not require visas for Syrians. 

Waill and his uncle, who is waiting in Damascus to find out when and where he can see his brother, is among the family who remain.

Waill told Metro it is too early to tell if he will be able to travel to Syria to see his father, whose birthday is on Christmas Eve.  

As the country emerges from the post-Assad tyranny, the family are among those around the world waiting anxiously to see what the future brings.  

‘I’m so happy, I’m so excited and I’m a bit like scared for the future,’ Waill said. ‘But generally I’m happy because whatever is coming I’m sure it’s better than what was there before. I’m just so happy that my father is out.’ 

MORE: No police, no air traffic control and ‘terrified’ people — what happens when a government collapses?

MORE: Who controls Syria now — will its new rulers show mercy?

MORE: Inside Syria’s ‘slaughterhouse’ prison – where more than 100,000 people have died

Do you have a story you would like to share? Contact josh.layton@metro.co.uk