(AP) –
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) — A 21-year-old who disappeared for three weeks after returning to Syria from suburban Detroit was released by Syrian authorities Wednesday, his family said.
Obada Mzaik, who has citizenship in the U.S. and Syria, had flown to Damascus from Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Jan. 3 but wasn't seen leaving an immigration checkpoint.
An uncle in Michigan said the Syrian government released Mzaik to his father there on Wednesday.
"We're grateful that he's back with his family, and we're grateful to the community for showing support to the family during difficult days," Dr. Firas Nashef, a dentist from the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, said in a statement.
Mzaik is a native of Columbus, Ohio, and was planning to study civil engineering at Syria's Al-Yarmouk University. He had been temporarily living in the Detroit area with a younger brother while taking classes at Oakland Community College.
Obaie Mzaik, 19, flew with his older brother but wasn't detained, Nashef said.
The State Department said this week that it was aware of the matter and was working with authorities in Syria. On Jan. 11, the U.S. government urged Americans to get out of Syria and to avoid any travel there.
Nashef said the family returned to Syria in 1994 when his nephew was about 3.
2 comments:
He is saved from slow painful death because he is an American. Assad regime eats their own half done and can't harm a foreign even if he is of Syrian origin..charcter of traitor and coward..Lucky to this young Syrian with American passport..he shouln't forget thousands of his cousins without that "Luck"
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