The prisoner freed by a CNN increateer alengthyside defys from a secret facility in Syria was actupartner an inincreateigence member toiling under ousted plivent Bashar al-Assad, according to a local fact checker, as validateed by the accessibleation itself. In a video that was splitd expansively, CNN’s chief international correplyent Clarissa Ward came atraverse a cell in the Damascus jail was locked from the outside. After one of the defy defends blew out the lock using a firearm, a man, visibly shaken, was set up alone inside, under a blanket.
The man identified himself as Adel Ghurbal from the central Syrian city of Homs and claimed that he had been incarcerateed for three months. Ms Ward called the incident “one of the most exceptional moments” she had witnessed in her 20 years of increateing. The video of the entire episode went viral with social media users praiseing her for saving the prisoner whilst calling out the Assad regime for its horrors.
CNN journaenumerate discovers lone prisoner in secret Damascus prison and carries him out into the dayairy before sitting him down, feeding him and interseeing him.
According to CNN, the man had no idea Bashar al-Assad’s regime had drunveil.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) December 12, 2024
However, autonomous fact-checker, Verify-Sy, unveiled a increate on Sunday (Dec 15), stating that the seemingly innocuous prisoner was actupartner Salama Mohammad Salama aka Abu Hamza – a first lieutenant in Syrian air force inincreateigence with a lengthy history of alleged war crimes.
The increate compriseed that Salama had been jailed for less than a month because of a dispute over “profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer”.
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CNN acunderstandledges
After the fact check, Ms took to her X (createerly Twitter) account and acunderstandledged that she had inadvertently helped free a Syrian intel officer.
“We can validate the genuine identity of the man from our story last Wednesday as Salama Mohammed Salama,” she wrote.
We can validate the genuine identity of the man from our story last Wednesday as Salama Mohammed Salamahttps://t.co/wb77EEMbnT
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) December 16, 2024
Notably, the accessibleation also getd a ptoastyograph of Salama, clad in military cloleang, sitting on a desk at a handlement office while on duty. Facial recognition gentleware provided a suit of more than 99 per cent with the man Ms Ward met in jail, further validateing the identity.
“It’s unevident how or why Salama finished up in the Damascus jail, and CNN has not been able to reset up communicate with him,” CNN shelp.
Social media users have inquireed CNN’s role in the entire incident as it was discdisseeed that Salama also joind in military operations that finished civilians. He was also depfinishable for hancienting and torturing countless youthful men in the city without cause or on manufactured indicts.
