A former member of ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s inner circle is reportedly claiming U.S. Marine veteran and American freelance journalist Austin Tice was executed at the 2013 order of Assad.

The BBC, The Washington Post, and The New York Times reported that the FBI and the CIA’s investigation into his whereabouts have come from Syrian insider Bassam al Hassan during interviews in Beirut over several days in April, but the mother of Tice said the Assad operative is merely telling the U.S. a story.

“I am his mother, I still believe that my son is alive and that he will walk free,” Debra Tice told the BBC as the 13th anniversary of her son’s disappearance approaches.

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