KRISTIAN LEE BAXTER, A CANADIAN CITIZEN WHO WAS BEING HELD IN SYRIA, SHOWS HIS RELIEF IN BEIRUT ON FRIDAY AFTER BEING RELEASED FROM CUSTODY.
Nanaimo resident held since December
BEIRUT • Canadian Kristian Lee Baxter broke down in tears after regaining his freedom following an eightmonth detention in Syria.
“I thought I would be there forever, honestly,” Baxter told a televised news conference in Beirut on Friday, after arriving in the Lebanese capital from Syria. “I didn’t know if anyone knew if I was alive.”
Baxter, who’s from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, had been travelling in Syria when his family last heard from him on Dec. 1.
Speaking in Beirut, Canadian Ambassador Emmanuelle Lamoureux said she could not give details about the case.
Baxter, wearing a grey T-shirt, reached out and held her shoulder as he thanked the Canadian Embassy and the Lebanese authorities for helping secure his freedom.
Lamoureux thanked Lebanese security chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim, who last month also mediated the release of U.S. citizen Sam Goodwin, who had been travelling in Syria without a visa.
Ibrahim said Lebanese mediation helped secure Baxter’s freedom after his ordeal, adding the Canadian would be heading home.
He said Baxter was detained for what Syrian authorities considered a “major violation” of local laws, but didn’t elaborate on comments that Syrian officials may have considered the incident security related.
Baxter’s mother Andrea Leclair is looking forward to seeing her son. “I’m ecstatic Kristian is on his way home.”
Leclair told The Canadian Press in January that her son messaged her daily because she was worried after he arrived in Syria on Nov. 26, but he went silent after his last message on Dec. 1.
Leclair described her son as “a world traveller and adventurer” and said he visited a village near the border of Lebanon at the invitation of his girlfriend’s brotherin-law. She said Baxter was supposed to be home Dec. 13 and his travel visa to Syria expired on Dec. 12 or 13.
In a statement, Leclair said the family is grateful to Global Affairs Canada for working “consistently, relentlessly, and professionally” to get her son released.
The statement issued through the Pan Pacific Law Corp., which worked with the family on Baxter’s case, said they are not aware of any charges brought against him but believe he may have broken regulations relating to travel requirements in Syria.
The federal government has been warning Canadians to avoid travelling to Syria since 2011 after the outbreak of a civil war that has attracted foreign powers and spawned a multitude of militias, including a new Islamist terror group, while leaving an estimated 500,000 people dead.
Canada severed diplomatic relations with Syria in 2012, expelling its diplomats and shuttering its embassy.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said she couldn’t comment on what the federal government might have done to help in Baxter’s release, but she used the case to remind Canadians about the dangers of travelling to unstable countries. “This case has had a happy outcome and I am delighted and frankly relieved. And I wish the best to him and to his family,” she told a news conference in Calgary.
With files from Postmedia News, The Associated Press and