Syrian prisoner CNN helped free was actually a hidden torturer for the Assad regime

Last week, after the fall of the dictator Bashar Assad, renowned journalist and CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward starred in an emotional (and viral) moment when, along with her camera crew and a military rebel, she came upon an alleged Syrian regime prisoner who claimed to have been locked up for months without seeing sunlight.

At the time, social media and the world's mainstream media praised Ward and were captivated by the story of the alleged prisoner, identified by CNN as "Adel Gharbal," from the city of Homs, in an article titled "CNN Reporter Documents a Shocking Moment of Finding a Prisoner Held in a Secret Syrian Jail, Unaware of Assad’s Overthrow."

However, four days later, the man's true identity was revealed.

A fact-check by the independent media outlet Verify-Sy, established in Syria in 2016, debunked Gharbal's account, and trully identified the man as an Assad regime torturer named "Salama Mohammad Salama."

According to Verify-Sy, the main suspicion about Gharbal's real identity occurred from the appearance of the man being clean, and showing no signs of torture or reacting negatively when exposed to sunlight despite allegedly being held in solitary confinement for 90 days.

The media outlet then searched public records for the name "Adel Gharbal" to verify the circumstances and duration of his detention, but the investigation yielded no results. Instead, in a separate investigation in the city of Homs, where Gharbal hails from, Verify-Sy uncovered the "prisoner's" real name and revealed shocking details of his life.

"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 abuse," reads the fact-check, which quotes local residents, former prisoners of the Assad regime and shows audios of some interviewees.

The report details that Abu Hamza was known for his corrupt practices as a member of the Syrian armed forces, managing several security checkpoints in Homs where he engaged in robbery, extortion and pressuring residents to become informants.

That Abu Hamza was found in a Damascus prison also has an explanation. According to Verify-Sy's sources, the man had been held for less than a month and it was all due to a dispute with a higher-ranking officer over the distribution of funds obtained at the point of extortion.

In addition to engaging in corrupt practices, Abu Hamza was also a torturer for the Assad regime, according to testimonies from victims' families and former detainees who were interviewed by Verify-Sy.

According to the report, Abu Hamza participated in military operations on several fronts in Homs in 2014 where he killed civiliansand was responsible for detaining and torturing numerous young men in the city without cause or on "trumped-up charges."

"Many were targeted simply for refusing to pay bribes, rejecting cooperation, or even for arbitrary reasons like their appearance," the report reads.

The fact check also reads the allegation of various residents who testified that Abu Hamza has been seeking to gain sympathy since the fall of Assad, explaining that he was "forced" to commit the actions he is being accused of.

This Monday, amid a wave of criticism, CNN acknowledged Gharbal's true identity, correcting its first report where it claimed he was an ordinary citizen who had been imprisoned.

According to the network, a local resident turned in a photograph of Gharbal while he was on duty at an apparent government office. Facial recognition software used by the network provided a more than 99% match to the man who took Ward's arm.

However, despite acknowledging that Gharbal was a former official of the Assad regime, it did not verify the details of the Verify-Sy fact-check, which sharply questioned CNN for not verifying the man's identity before publishing the footage that has already gone around the world.