US broadcaster investigates

Was CNN report on Syrian prisoner a fake?

Here, the freed man, who is said to have been unaware of the upheaval in his country, drinks water "for the first time in days".

(Bild: Screenshot CNN)

This footage from the US broadcaster CNN has caused an international stir. During a local inspection of an abandoned secret prison in Syria, a reporter came across a man wrapped in a blanket who claimed to have been locked up in solitary confinement for three months and without food in his cell for days. Now CNN is investigating numerous allegations that the report could have been falsified.

The TV team led by CNN journalist Clarissa Ward was actually searching together with rebels for traces of the American Austin Tice, who is still missing in Syria. This search led to the "shocking discovery". The "forgotten" prisoner said he was a family man from Homs named Adel Gharbal. He begged for mercy, asked for water and when he was led outside by a Syrian rebel and Ward, he gasped for air and kept repeating: "Oh God, there's light."

Great skepticism after "shocking find"
As soon as the images emerged, there were skeptical comments on social media about the "shocking find". All suspicious facts have now been collected by the Syrian fact-checking platform Verify-Sy and subjected to further analysis, including interviews with alleged acquaintances of the man. Those responsible at Verify-Sy were taken aback by the fact that despite the darkness in which the man is said to have lived for days, he was able to look openly into the light without blinking. Furthermore, there were no signs of abuse or torture on his body.

Although Verify-Sy was not able to clarify the identity of the prisoner one hundred percent, several people in Homs were able to identify the man as Salama Mohammad Salama or Abu Hamza, it said. He is said to have been a former lieutenant in Bashar al-Assad's military intelligence service. He is accused of violence against civilians, extortion, theft and even murder. He is said to have ended up in prison after a dispute with a superior over extorted money.

CNN spokesperson: "Liberation" of the man not staged
Now he wants to win the sympathy of the new rulers by making false claims and explaining that he was forced to commit all the acts he is accused of, the fact-checkers quoted the witnesses interviewed.

A CNN spokesperson told news site The Daily Beast that the report on the man's "release" was not fabricated or falsified in any way. "It all happened the way we portrayed it." However, the spokesman suggested that the prisoner "may have given false information" to the reporter. The case will continue to be investigated and reported on. 

Cells in the notorious Saidnaya prison, where torture was the order of the day.

(Bild: APA/AFP/OMAR HAJ KADOUR)

Prisoners and relatives celebrate their liberation in front of Saidnaya Prison.

(Bild: APA/AFP/OMAR HAJ KADOUR)

It is not known how often this gallows was used.

(Bild: APA/AP)

The Assad family had ruled the country with an iron hand for more than 50 years. Bashar al-Assad took over power in the country from his late father Hafiz al-Assad in 2000 and with it an apparatus of prisons and detention centers in which dissidents were locked away. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 100,000 people have died in Syrian prisons, often as a result of torture.