CNN’s Clarissa Ward captured the incredible moment when a Syrian prisoner, who had been held in a windowless cell for three months and abandoned to die four days prior, was found and freed by her and her team.
“My God, there is light,” the man says to Ward and a soldier who shot the lock off his state prison cell and led him out to safety.
He then hugs and kisses Ward, telling her, “Stay with me,” over and over, gripping her arm.
In nearly twenty years as a journalist, this was one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed.
Once he learns that Ward is not there to hurt him, he takes her arm with both hands, refusing to let go.
Anchor Jake Tapper introduced the clip Wednesday by saying that the prisoner had no idea that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime had fallen.
Ward was hoping to find traces of American journalist Austin Tice, who’s been held as a captive in Syria since 2012. »
