The man accused of being responsible for holding the missing American journalist Austin Tice has claimed that ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ordered his execution, security sources have told the BBC.
Major General Bassam Al Hassan is a former commander in the Republican Guards who was part of President Assad's inner circle.
He was also the Chief of Staff of the National Defence Forces (NDF), the paramilitary group that a BBC investigation uncovered was responsible for holding Mr Tice after his abduction in 2012.
The discovery was made as part of an upcoming BBC Radio 4 podcast about the disappearance of Austin Tice.
The American journalist vanished near the Syrian capital of Damascus in August 2012, just days after his 31st birthday.
He had been working as a freelance journalist and was leaving Syria when he was abducted.