Muhammad Zakkour from Latakia in northwestern Syria spent more than 13 years in a hiding place behind a wall he built himself in his grandfather’s house. After being arrested during the early years of the Syrian revolution, he was released, but was detained again and began fearing a third prison sentence. Convinced that disappearing was the only way to avoid another arrest, he created a space behind the wall about one meter wide and roughly three meters high. Because of its cramped, enclosed conditions, relatives compared the shelter to a grave.
He never went outside the hiding place. His wife passed him food, water, clothes and medicine through a small opening in the wall. For years, he slept, ate and prayed away from ordinary life, hearing the voices of the children in the house but unable to show himself to them. His wife became not only his link to the outside world but also the only person who knew he was alive; she also had to support the family.
To those around him, his disappearance became a death. His brother, who lived in Turkey, even held mourning gatherings, believing that Muhammad had died, although he was only a few meters from his relatives—behind the wall. His wife concealed the truth even from the children, fearing that one of them might accidentally let it slip. Zakkour later explained that a child could easily reveal what they knew, so keeping the children silent was part of protecting the secret. Even illness was not enough reason for him to come out: when he felt unwell, he described his symptoms to his wife, who went to a doctor, explained his condition and returned with medicine.
One day, security officers searching for him broke into the house and asked his daughter about her father. The girl stood before them, unaware that the wanted man was behind the same wall, and insisted that she knew nothing about him; the search yielded nothing. After the security forces left, the girl suffered an extreme attack of fear, and her condition deteriorated, eventually leading to diabetes, according to the family. When her father was sent to prison, his wife was pregnant; while he was in hiding, she gave birth to a boy who, like the other children, grew up believing that his father was dead.
The long-awaited moment came after the regime fell and the release of prisoners was announced. The mother placed a refrigerator in front of the opening separating her husband’s hiding place from the rest of the house. Then, crying with joy, she called the children and said: “Your father is behind this wall.” At first, the children did not believe her—it seemed to them that their mother had imagined his presence out of grief. But she asked them to move the refrigerator. When the hiding place was opened and their father appeared before them after all those years, the shock was overwhelming: the children froze, and some fainted.
News Explainers
What is Latakia, and why is the city considered a stronghold of the Alawites and the former regime? — Latakia is a major port city on Syria’s Mediterranean coast and the center of the province of the same name. Historically, the region, together with Tartus, has been home to a concentrated Alawite population—a religious community and branch of Shia Islam to which the Assad family belongs. In the 1920s, the French authorities even created a separate “Alawite State,” reinforcing the community’s local identity. Under the Assad regime, the Alawite elite was widely represented in the army, intelligence services and Republican Guard, while Latakia and Tartus became the regime’s informal fiefdom: the area where the Assad family originated and lived (Qardaha), as well as a base for the security forces. That is why the city and province are seen as strongholds of the Alawites and the former regime.
What were Syria’s security services (the mukhabarat), and how did they act against opponents of the regime? — “Mukhabarat” is an Arabic word meaning intelligence or security service. In Syria, it refers to an extensive system of several parallel intelligence agencies, including General Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence and Political Security, all reporting to the president and the Ba’ath Party. They controlled society through surveillance, networks of informants, censorship and fear. The regime used mass arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and imprisonment in facilities such as Sednaya against its opponents. During the 2011 protests, the mukhabarat played a key role in suppressing demonstrations and detaining activists, while also fueling violence—one of the factors that turned peaceful protests into an armed conflict.
How was the 2011 Syrian revolution connected to the fall of the regime in December 2024? — The revolution began in March 2011 with protests in Daraa, sparked by the arrest and torture of teenagers, and quickly spread across the country under slogans calling for freedom and dignity. The regime’s harsh response—shooting at demonstrators, mass arrests and torture—led to the militarization of the uprising, the creation of the Free Syrian Army and the emergence of numerous armed groups, as well as foreign intervention by Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Turkey, the United States and others. By 2018, with support from Russia and Iran, the regime had regained control of most of the country, but it had not addressed the conflict’s underlying causes: authoritarianism, corruption, the economic crisis and sectarian politics. By 2024, its allies had weakened—Russia because of the war in Ukraine, and Hezbollah because of its conflict with Israel—while the opposition retained a foothold in Idlib. In November and December 2024, an offensive led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham resulted in the capture of Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus; on December 8, Assad fled. Thus, the fall of the regime in December 2024 was the culmination of a long process set in motion by the 2011 revolution and the brutal response to it.
Full version: His children thought he was dead: Why did a Syrian man hide for 13 years in a prison he built in his home?