The man presented by CNN as a “released prisoner” of the regime of Bashar Al-Assad was an intelligence officer of the regime
You may have seen the poignant images of a report published by CNN on December 11, 2024: the special correspondent for the American channel Clarissa Ward enters, accompanied by her team and a rebel guard, into a prison cell. one of the abandoned prisons of the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Damascus. Inside, a man, hidden under a blanket, introduces himself as Adel Ghurbal, a « civil » who says he is from Homs and whose liberation we are witnessing.
But the authenticity of this report was quickly called into question by local journalists. The Verify-Sy site, a Syrian media member of the international fact-checking network IFCN, assured, as of December 15, that the man in the video was identified as “Salama”, also known as Abu Hamza , and is “ a first lieutenant in the Syrian Air Force intelligence services, known for his activities in Homs.”
The next day, Clarissa Ward confirmed her error in a post on X: “ We can confirm the true identity of the man from our article last Wednesday: Salama Mohammed Salama “, she writes. In an article published the same day, CNN also confirms the identity of the man in the video, relying on testimonies from locals and an undisclosed photo that the editorial staff was able to obtain of the man in regime military clothing.
“It is unclear how and why Salama ended up in Damascus prison, and CNN has not been able to reestablish contact with him”specifies the channel.
