Former U.S. Hostage Jeremy Levin Says He Visited Syria Last Month

WASHINGTON —  Jeremy Levin, one of two American journalists who say they have escaped from captors in Lebanon, said Wednesday that he returned to Syria last month for the first time in over two years.

“This was my first trip to Syria since my release,” Levin said in a telephone interview. “I met people--both private and official--who had been helpful to my wife on my behalf.”

Levin, who works for Cable News Network, said he spent July 12-17 in Damascus, Syria, with his wife, Lucille. He said that he met with a number of Syrian officials about the hostage situation.

Levin was held hostage in Lebanon for 11 months after his abduction in March, 1984. He is now a member of a committee of journalists working to free the more than 20 Westerners held hostage by Islamic radicals in Lebanon.

There are several similarities between his case and that of Charles Glass, the former ABC correspondent who fled his kidnapers in Beirut on Tuesday after two months in captivity.

Both men, who knew each other, said they slipped out of chains to attain freedom and both were taken by Syrian troops to Damascus, where they were turned over to U.S. Embassy officials.

Three other hostages released over the last 23 months--the Rev. Benjamin Weir, Father Lawrence M. Jenco and David P. Jacobsen of Huntington Beach, Calif.--said they were deliberately released.

But Levin and Glass maintain they eluded their kidnapers, although Levin has acknowledged he might have been allowed to go free. Glass has rejected any speculation that his captors had permitted him to escape.