Syrian Refugee Shares Horrors of Abduction and How He Became Friends With His Captors
Samakie said that he was taken to a small village near Aleppo. He was placed in a room and remembers a tall, bearded militant walking in the room and sitting down next to him. The militant tells him that they kidnapped him and were asking his family for $2 million in ransom.
Additionally, the militant accused his father of working for the Syrian government.
"They were like, '$2 million or your are going back home in a plastic bag,'" Samakie recalled.
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Samakie said that he initially joked about the ransom amount, saying that the militants should just kill him right away because there was no way his family could afford that amount.
"They guy standing on guard at the door comes in afterwards and is like, 'Are you crazy Saria?' I am like, 'No, not really. Why?'" Samakie asked. "He said, 'That guy you just sat with beheaded nine people and you are going to be No. 10. You were there laughing.'"
Samakie got to really know the captors looking after him during the first few days of his 10-day abduction.
Samakie said that one of the militants was a defected Syrian soldier who quit the military because he was ordered to kill innocent civilians. Another militant, Samakie said, was a former university student who saw one of his friends die in his arms after being shot during a peaceful government protest.
"Please understand that while we are here and part of the Free Syrian Army, we are still soldiers being given pay, given orders," Samakie remembers being told by one of the militants. "That was eye opening. Whether the regime talks about the Free Syrian Army or whether the Free Syrian Army talks about the regime, at the end of the day, they are people given orders. It was important for me to see the humanity of each people. When asked them what they wanted. They said they wanted for this to end, to go back, get a house, get married, have children."
"They joked that my dad was going to give them so much money that they were going to take part of that money to get married," Samakie said. "I was like, 'Please invite me to that wedding when you get married.'"
Although he made friends with some of his FSA captors, Samakie didn't make friends with everyone.
"Another time they brought down and old guy who sat down and cherry picked verses from the Quran. He sits in front of me. I said, 'I am going to respect you because you are an old man but whatever you say, the verses you are reciting are completely out of context and completely wrong,'" Samakie told him.
"Saying that to an old guy who is completely an extremist, he stand up and says, 'Chop his right arm and his left leg. I want them in plastic bags and we are going to send them to his family.'"
Fortunately, Samakie was spared his arm and his leg and his family eventually paid $20,000 for his ransom.
"When my brother comes to the pickup point and I go to see him and give him a hug, I turned around and there are these 20 guys standing saluting me. I was like, 'What is happening?'" Samakie recalled asking. "They were like, 'You have proven to be stronger and more courageous than we could ever be.' They offered me a job to work with [FSA]. They said, 'You never have to go into battle, we can order your office online, we can get you are car.'"
Samakie turned down the job offer and returned home. After his father lost his properties and businesses, Samakie said that he was taught how to make yogurt and sell it as a job. However, Samakie had his heart set on getting an education.
"I was making around 150-200 buckets a day — it was a profession. I went on with it but I realized I didn't want to spend the rest of my life making yogurts," Samakie explained. "I want to participate in the building of my country for the future."
In 2013, Samakie fled to Jordan through Syria's unofficial border with Turkey. After getting a high school education at the private King's Academy in Madaba, Samakie helped launch an NGO devoted to providing educational opportunities to Syrian refugees in Jordan.
"Not only have I seen the impact on education for myself, I have seen the impact of education on the students who work with my NGO," Samakie said. "Really, going to Kings changed my mind in terms of how we think of education. I didn't want to go and receive an education where I get a degree and just put it my wall. ... To me, I wanted to see from different perspectives. I wanted to broaden my horizon."
