Cape Talk, Friday night

Do you remember the first time you heard about Austin Tice? During that time, it was basically a time of protest and a time of unrest. The emergency services used to receive around 2,000 people a day. But I do remember that when it came to Austin Tice, he was brought in by a group of security officers. And was he under guard the whole time?

Yeah, because before he had arrived, I had received a phone call saying, We are sending someone to you. Please take care of him. They came from Bassam al-Hassan's office. When Austin arrived, how did he look? When a patient comes into the emergency services, we usually get him blood tests. And we saw that his white blood cell count was low and it sounded like he had a virus.

So we gave him like an anti-vomiting. We also gave him a painkiller, but he didn't seem like he was in a bad condition. He didn't really see any signs of bruising on Austin while he was examining him. And he said the people in those facilities generally, in that facility specifically, didn't really show signs of torture, unlike other places where detainees were held. I asked him a few steps.

Specific questions about Austin, the tattoos, his height, things like that. And Dr. Issa answers correctly. Was he talkative? Small conversation. How are you? What do you feel? So we all obviously made small talk, like how are you feeling? But at the end of the day, when we get a patient like this, you know, we have to remember where we live.

Live in Syria, so we're not able to kind of have these conversations where we're asking too many questions. Can you tell me about the next time you saw Austin Tice? The next day after I saw Austin, I got a call from Basam al-Hassan's office, and they said, It would be great if you brought your stuff and come to us. So, I got my kit and I went there. I had seen so many detainees there, I would see all of them.

Them in the cells. Austin is the only person I saw in a room or an office. He wasn't feeling well still. He was feeling a bit better than I had seen him, but he was still nauseous. He still had diarrhea, but it also wasn't hostile. There was a little bit of, you know, playfulness to him. I asked him, What do you need? And he said, I would just love something to read. Obviously, while we're talking, I have an officer watching over both of us. And then I left. The next day, I went.