CNN finally names ‘freed’ Syrian prisoner as Assad officer — but sidesteps responsibility for reporting error

CNN finally confirmed the real identity of the man in its emotional alleged rescue video shared last week.

On Monday, the news outlet published an article acknowledging that the man who presented himself as Adel Gharbal in a video by chief correspondent Clarissa Ward was, in fact, Salama Mohammad Salama, also known as Abu Hamza, a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence under Bashar al-Assad.

However, neither CNN nor Ward acknowledged any fault or offered an explanation regarding their failure to verify the man’s identity in the initial report. Instead, they appeared to present the information as a new discovery.

‘We can confirm the real identity of the man from our story last Wednesday as Salama Mohammed Salama.’

Last Wednesday, the news outlet aired an alleged rescue video of a man who claimed to be a Syrian civilian who had been locked in a secret prison for three months. After a Syrian rebel guard reportedly shot off the cell’s padlock, Ward and her news crew discovered the man inside, hiding underneath a blanket.

The man stated that he had not consumed any food or water in several days and had not seen sunlight in months. However, viewers raised questions about the man’s clean, well-groomed appearance.

Verify-Sy published a report on Sunday stating that it had uncovered the man’s true identity. It claimed he was not a Syrian civilian as he had presented but an officer for Assad.

Locals told the news outlet that Hamza was “involved in theft, extortion, and coercing residents into becoming informants.” He had reportedly been incarcerated “due to a dispute over profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer.”

In response to the bombshell report, CNN stated, “We have subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity.”

“No one other than the CNN team was aware of our plans to visit the prison building featured in our report that day. The events transpired as they appear in our film,” CNN continued. “The decision to release the prisoner featured in our report was taken by the guard — a Syrian rebel.”

CNN published an article on Monday confirming Verify-Sy’s reporting.

“A man who was filmed by CNN being released by rebels from a Damascus jail was a former intelligence officer with the deposed Syrian regime, according to local residents, and not an ordinary citizen who had been imprisoned, as he had claimed,” the article read.

CNN stated that it obtained a photograph that “points to the man’s real identity — said to be a lieutenant in the Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate, Salama Mohammad Salama.”

The outlet said it could not verify why the man was detained in the prison, but Verify-Sy reported he had been incarcerated for less than a month.

“Rebel guards handed him over to the Syrian Red Crescent. The medical relief organization later posted a picture of him on social media, saying they had returned a freed prisoner to relatives in Damascus,” CNN stated. “Salama’s current whereabouts are unknown.”

Ward provided a short statement on X linking to CNN’s article.

“We can confirm the real identity of the man from our story last Wednesday as Salama Mohammed Salama,” she wrote.

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