Suleiman al-Youssef’s son, Shadi, has been missing since the beginning of the Syrian civil war. After the Assad regime was overthrown, Suleiman found new hope when he discovered a video of a man who looked like his son outside the country’s most notorious prison. WSJ’s Ben C. Solomon on Suleiman’s search for his son and Syria’s thousands of other missing loved ones like him. Kate Linebaugh hosts. Further Listening: - Assad’s Regime Falls. What’s Next For Syria? - Ten Days That Shifted Power in Syria Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Suleiman al-Youssef and what is his story?
Suleiman al-Yusuf is a father of seven. He lives outside Damascus and works odd jobs. Twelve years ago, his son Shadi went missing, and he's been looking for him ever since. Our colleague Ben Solomon talked to Suleiman last December. What were your first impressions of him?
So when we first met him, he was just very kind, very gentle, and really just soft-spoken. It was clear that he didn't come from a lot of money, that he was a working-class guy, and that he just didn't know really where to turn. He didn't know how to approach this search, but he was going to do whatever he could.
Suleiman showed Ben the only clue that he had that his son was alive, a video. The video shows men being released from prison after the fall of Syria's dictator. There, in the crowd, Suleiman pointed to one man, who he said is his son.
When I saw the video, I knew it was my son.
He said, when I saw the video, I knew. I said, that's Shadi. He also said, if you put him among a million people, I could still pick him out.
And when he showed us the video, I mean, it was shocking.
Ben makes documentaries for The Wall Street Journal and decided to follow Suleiman's journey.
It was like, oh, this is, I mean, I immediately thought, wow, this is going to end with a happy ending. Like, he's going to find his son. We've got to follow this guy. When I went to Syria, I knew I wanted to find someone like him. I knew I wanted to find somebody that was actively looking for the family because there was hundreds of thousands of people that were missing.
So we decided to start following him. And what we found was a much more complicated and much more powerful and also sad, but also hopeful story that spoke to the country at large and not just his case.
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Chapter 2: What happened to Suleiman’s son, Shadi?
Chapter 3: How did Suleiman discover a clue about Shadi’s whereabouts?
And when he showed us the video, I mean, it was shocking.
Ben makes documentaries for The Wall Street Journal and decided to follow Suleiman's journey.
It was like, oh, this is, I mean, I immediately thought, wow, this is going to end with a happy ending. Like, he's going to find his son. We've got to follow this guy. When I went to Syria, I knew I wanted to find someone like him. I knew I wanted to find somebody that was actively looking for the family because there was hundreds of thousands of people that were missing.
So we decided to start following him. And what we found was a much more complicated and much more powerful and also sad, but also hopeful story that spoke to the country at large and not just his case.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Linebaugh. It's Monday, April 28th. Coming up on the show, the search for Shadi. According to Suleiman, Shadi was 25 years old when he disappeared in 2013. Shadi had worked at a tobacco and shisha store. His father described him as dignified and ambitious.
His mother, Mfadi, said Shadi was the head of the household and that his brothers would listen to him.
He was the one who ran the house. He would respond to him as he was.
What did Suleiman say about the last time he saw his son?
So Suleiman told us that the last day that he saw his son, the son was trying to go out, trying to work. And Suleiman was like, just don't go to Damascus. Don't go to the city. Don't cause any problems. Don't, like, test it. Just stay home. He took the car keys away and hid them so his son wouldn't sneak off.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Suleiman face during his search for Shadi?
Ben joined Suleiman in his search for Shadi. And what he found wasn't what he expected. That's next.
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To help Suleiman in his search for Shadi, Ben started looking online, trying to find the man in the video.
We started looking for this photo, and we just put out word. Anybody could tell us any information. Does anybody know who this person was?
Ben got some help from a local journalist in Syria named Aroub Hamoud. Aroub posted about Shadi on Facebook groups and made lots of calls. She chased down leads and tried everywhere she could to find the man in the video. And then in February, she got a hit.
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Chapter 5: What was the situation in Syria after Assad’s regime fell?
Chapter 6: How did Ben Solomon get involved in Suleiman’s journey?
Ben makes documentaries for The Wall Street Journal and decided to follow Suleiman's journey.
It was like, oh, this is, I mean, I immediately thought, wow, this is going to end with a happy ending. Like, he's going to find his son. We've got to follow this guy. When I went to Syria, I knew I wanted to find someone like him. I knew I wanted to find somebody that was actively looking for the family because there was hundreds of thousands of people that were missing.
So we decided to start following him. And what we found was a much more complicated and much more powerful and also sad, but also hopeful story that spoke to the country at large and not just his case.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Linebaugh. It's Monday, April 28th. Coming up on the show, the search for Shadi. According to Suleiman, Shadi was 25 years old when he disappeared in 2013. Shadi had worked at a tobacco and shisha store. His father described him as dignified and ambitious.
His mother, Mfadi, said Shadi was the head of the household and that his brothers would listen to him.
He was the one who ran the house. He would respond to him as he was.
What did Suleiman say about the last time he saw his son?
So Suleiman told us that the last day that he saw his son, the son was trying to go out, trying to work. And Suleiman was like, just don't go to Damascus. Don't go to the city. Don't cause any problems. Don't, like, test it. Just stay home. He took the car keys away and hid them so his son wouldn't sneak off.
Eventually, Shadi got hold of the keys and drove into the city. He was arrested at a checkpoint. Shadi disappeared at a time of tremendous conflict in Syria. There were widespread protests against the oppressive regime of Bashar al-Assad. And the regime was indiscriminately arresting men of military age. With all that chaos, Suleiman had wanted his family to keep a low profile.
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Chapter 7: What evidence supports the belief that the man in the video is Shadi?
Chapter 8: What does Suleiman hope for the future regarding his missing son?
I thought you were my son. The man on the call responded, God willing, God willing, you will find him soon. Suleiman asked him some more questions about the sweater he was wearing in the video, the cigarette he was smoking. He also asked him where he's from. And Suleiman again told the man that he really, really thought he was his son.
The man responded the same way he did earlier.
God willing, you'll be reunited with him soon." The call ended. Suleiman put down the phone.
And he said, It's not Shadi. It's not his voice.
Suleiman stared at the ground. He rubbed his face. He said, this means Shadi is dead. Suleiman stared beyond Ben's camera. He repeated out loud that Shadi was gone and whispered a prayer. He rubbed his face again. Umfadi left the room.
I mean, it was just a two-minute call, but in those few minutes, there was just these long pauses where he just kind of waited to kind of hear this man's voice and just think about what to say next. I mean, it was really hard to kind of see him slowly realize that this is not his son and that this is the end of his search.
Ben learned that Suleiman wasn't the only person who thought the man in the video was their loved one.
So many people were posting the same photo and their son next to it and their brother and their cousin. They thought it was their relative. it was hard to see these faces over and over of so many people seeing their sons. People were desperate. Like this is a country of desperate people with no information and for years just had given up hope. Like these are just,
hundreds if not thousands of sulimans who just believed that this could be their family member and it was just you know he had bushy eyebrows and he was gaunt and he and he looked like a face that so many people could just see their love in and see their hope in so in some ways it was really inspiring and in other ways it was really really hard to hear and see
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