Syrian authorities released German journalist Armin Wertz on
September 26, 2013, five months after his arrest in Aleppo on May 5.
Two days after his release, and upon his arrival to Berlin
via Beirut, Wertz told the Tagesspiegel daily for which he works, that he
arrived to Syria through Turkey. Forces affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of
Interior arrested him in his Aleppo hotel room, and placed him under house
arrest. However, during the first days of his detention, he remained in contact
with his family and informed Reporters without Borders of his whereabouts.
Two months later, Wertz was placed in jail in solitary
confinement under difficult conditions: he received only one bread and rice
dish per day and water had a very unpleasant taste; not to mention the
primitive state of the sanitary equipment in his cell. Wertz was not victim of
physical abuse but he saw prison guards repeatedly beating other Syrian
prisoners.
On the day of his release, Wertz was transferred to the
Department of Immigration, and then taken to Beirut airport in a car belonging
to the German services.
Wertz, who was born in 1945, worked as a correspondent for
the Tagesspiegel daily in Indonesia. He headed to Syria to report on the
battles between the Syrian army and the opposition forces for Asian newspapers.