Lebanese man returns home after 32 yrs in Syrian prisons

Hamwi meets his grandchildren for the first time. Pic/AP

Suheil Hamwi spent 32 years in a Syrian prison, and now, after an offensive by insurgents that toppled the government of Bashar Assad, he's finally returned to his home in Lebanon.

In 1992, Hamwi worked as a merchant, selling various goods in the town of Chekka in northern Lebanon. On the night of Eid il-Burbara, or Saint Barbara's Day - a holiday similar to Halloween - a man came to his door to buy some whiskey.

Hamwi said he handed his 10-month-old son, George, to his wife and went to his car to fetch the whiskey and make the sale. As Hamwi approached his vehicle, a car filled with men pulled up, he said, forcing him inside and taking him away.

Hamwi was one of hundreds of Lebanese citizens detained during Syria's occupation of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005 and believed to be held in Syrian prisons for decades.

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