Viral CNN segment showing Syrian prisoner being freed under scrutiny

CNN is investigating the identity of a man who the network reported to be a Syrian prisoner freed from a secret jail as CNN cameras rolled after a local fact-checking group said he was actually a killer and torturer for Bashar al-Assad’s regime.  

CNN’s Clarissa Ward went viral last week when she covered the alleged rescue of a “Syrian prisoner,” who she reported spent “three months in a windowless cell” in one of the Assad regime’s secret prisons. Ward called it “one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed.” But some observers were skeptical of the given narrative, since the man appeared to be decently groomed and in good condition for someone locked in a horrific prison and allegedly not given food or water in several days.

Verify-SY, a Syrian journalism organization specializing in fact-checking and combating misinformation, on Sunday reported the prisoner was actually Salama Mohammad Salama, also known as Abu Hamza, who was a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence notorious for torturing young men. 

In the segment, Ward said she was searching for traces of missing journalist Austin Tice when she found a man hiding under a blanket inside a locked cell at a prison building at the Syrian Air Force intelligence headquarters in Damascus. She said the guard, who was a rebel fighter, made the CNN crew turn off the cameras while he shot the lock off the cell door. 

The man was under a blanket and initially didn’t move but eventually came to his feet, and Ward can be briefly seen in the segment breathing a sigh of relief.

The man appeared healthy, and Ward repeatedly told him he was “OK” as she offered him water while he clutched her arm. The rebel fighter told the man he was “free,” and the man said he hadn’t heard anything about his family for three months. Ward reported that his captors fled with the fall of Damascus, and he had been left without food or water for at least four days. 

The man claimed to not know the notorious Assad was ousted by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which released people from prisons in Damascus where Assad held political opponents.

The man told CNN his name was Adel Ghurbal, and that he was a civilian who had been arrested three months ago and spent time in three different jails while being regularly interrogated. But Verify-Sy, which is affiliated with the Poynter Institute that also runs PolitiFact, reported the man was providing bogus information. 

“The Verify-Sy team searched public records for the name ‘Adel Gharbal’ to verify the circumstances and duration of his detention but found no results. Gharbal, who claimed to hail from Homs and whose dialect supported this claim, prompted further inquiries in the city. The team discovered that his real name is ‘Salama Mohammad Salama,’ a revelation that brought shocking details to light. Salama, known as ‘Abu Hamza,’ is a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence, notorious for his activities in Homs. Residents of the Al-Bayyada neighborhood identified him as frequently stationed at a checkpoint in the area’s western entrance, infamous for its abuses,” Verify-SY reported. 

“Abu Hamza reportedly managed several security checkpoints in Homs and was involved in theft, extortion, and coercing residents into becoming informants,” Verify-SY continued. “According to locals, his recent incarceration—lasting less than a month—was due to a dispute over profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer. This led to his detention in one of Damascus’s cells, as per neighborhood sources.”

The report said Salama has a “grim history” and has “participated in military operations on several fronts in Homs in 2014, killed civilians,” adding that he was “responsible for detaining and torturing numerous young men in the city without cause or on fabricated charges.”

“Many were targeted simply for refusing to pay bribes, rejecting cooperation, or even for arbitrary reasons like their appearance. These details were corroborated by families of victims and former detainees who spoke with Verify-Sy,” the report said. 

“As Syrians first and journalists second, we must ask,” Verify-SY continued. “Did CNN deliberately mislead its audience to rehabilitate Abu Hamza’s image, or did it fall victim to misinformation? And if the latter, what led the network to this mistake, especially when Syrians have succeeded in exposing crimes and violations that the world at large has failed to document over decades?”

CNN has defended Ward’s reporting but admits the man 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,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The events transpired as they appear in our film. The decision to release the prisoner featured in our report was taken by the guard – a Syrian rebel. We reported the scene as it unfolded, including what the prisoner told us, with clear attribution.”

“We have subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity,” the CNN spokesperson continued. “We are continuing our reporting into this and the wider story.” 

Videos of the segment posted on X have been hit with community notes. 

CNN has also added a pinned comment to its YouTube video of the segment, which has 1.3 million views as of Monday morning.

“Since this report was published, CNN has continued to look into the background of the prisoner featured in it. CNN is now aware that he may have given a false identity. We are continuing our reporting into this and the wider story,” it reads.

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Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.