Is this an error caused by the vagaries of the reporting? Or was the American channel manipulated? CNN acknowledged Monday evening that the man interviewed last Wednesday by one of its flagship journalists, Clarissa Ward, and her team, in a prison in Syria is not a simple prisoner.
The sequence went around the world and raised questions. It showed this man being released from a secret prison of the regime of deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad. While this Damascus prison was empty, the man was found alone in a cell, the only one still closed in the prison, hidden under a blanket. The sequence was filmed and then broadcast by the American channel.
Taken in as a prisoner
The man then explained that his name was “Adel Gharbal” and that he was from the large city of Homs. He claimed to have been arrested after his phone was checked and to have been transported to three prisons. He added that he had spent three months in the cell. However, when he takes his first steps outside, he manages to raise his head to the sky without showing any visible visual discomfort.
After the broadcast of the report, the Syrian Red Cross, which we see taking charge of the man at the end of the report like the other prisoners released from Syrian jails, explained that the man had joined a relative in Damascus. The organization did not confirm the identity of the man, who it explained was “released from prison without any identifying information”.
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A troubled past in the army
Questions surrounding the prisoner’s identity redoubled after the publication of an investigation on Sunday by the Syrian fact-checking media Verify Media Platform, based in Turkey and whose work is certified by the International fact-checking network (as for 20 Minutes).
According to this media, the man is not called “Adel Gharbal” but Salama Mohammad Salama and is also known as Abu Hamza. The man has a checkered past: according to Verify Media Platform, he was a lieutenant in the Air Force intelligence services and is known for his activities at a checkpoint in Homs. The lieutenant “would have been involved in activities of theft, extortion and coercion against residents so that they became informants”, write our colleagues.
The soldier also allegedly killed civilians during operations in his town and was responsible for the arbitrary arrest of several men.
As for the reason for his incarceration, it would not be linked to a control of his phone, but to a “dispute over the sharing of profits from the extorted funds with a senior officer”.
Based on testimonies from residents, such as Verify Media Platform, CNN, contacted by 20 minutesconfirmed Monday evening that the man is a lieutenant known for extortion. The American channel has not been able to contact the man again and adds that his current location is not known.
