DAMASCUS (Agencies): A CNN report titled “CNN Reporter documents a Shocking Moment of Finding a Prisoner Held in a Secret Syrian Jai, Unaware of Assad’s Overthrow” is garnering worldwide attention for all the wrong reasons.
The video report, published on December 12 and shared across CNN’s website, YouTube channel, and X, featured correspondent Clarissa Ward walking through what appeared to be a secret prison in Damascus.
Accompanied by an armed individual alleged to be an opposition forces member, Ward was filmed opening a cell to reveal a man identified as “Adel Gharbal,” a resident of Homs. Gharbal claimed he had been arrested three months earlier after his phone was searched and was later transferred to Damascus.
He alleged that he had been held in solitary confinement in complete darkness for 90 days.
According to CNN, this transfer occurred three days before the collapse of ousted President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
While Ward was reportedly in Damascus to search for missing American journalist Austin Tice, the authenticity of this discovery has come under scrutiny and raised doubts.
Here’s an analysis of CNN’s report and why many are skeptical of its credibility.
Who is Adel Gharbal?
Despite claiming not to have seen sunlight for months, Gharbal displayed no physical reaction to daylight – like flinching, squinting, or blinking— which would be common due to his supposed prolonged exposure to darkness.
Instead, he appeared overjoyed and even looked directly at the sky.
Gharbal was also clean, well-groomed, and seemingly in good health, without visible signs of malnourishment or abuse, commonly reported by those detained under harsh conditions.
Verify-Sy, an independent Syrian fact-checking organization established in 2016, launched its own investigation into the claims to confirm the man’s identity.
According to the organization, public records yielded no information about “Adel Gharbal.”
Further inquiries in his hometown of Homs revealed that the man identified as Gharbal is actually named “Salama Mohammad Salama,” and is commonly known as “Abu Hamza.”
Salama is a first lieutenant in the Syrian Air Force Intelligence and has a notorious reputation in Homs, particularly in the al-Bayyada neighborhood. Residents identified him as a prominent figure at a security checkpoint infamous for abuse, theft, and coercing civilians into becoming informants, Verify-Sy said in its report.
Local accounts also paint a grim picture of Salama’s past. According to residents and former detainees, he participated in military operations in Homs in 2014, detained civilians on fabricated charges, and tortured young men for refusing to pay bribes or comply with his demands.
Families of victims corroborated these accounts to Verify-Sy, citing arbitrary detentions and violent abuses carried out by Salama.
Following the regime’s fall, Salama reportedly began portraying himself as a victim, claiming he was “forced” to commit atrocities. He also deactivated his social media accounts and changed his phone number in an apparent attempt to erase evidence of his involvement in war crimes.
Sources also revealed that Salama’s detention in Damascus lasted less than a month – not the 90 days that the CNN report had claimed – and stemmed from an internal dispute over the division of extorted funds with a superior officer.
Gaps in CNN’s narrative
The report also left key questions unanswered.
Ward did not explain why the prison was entirely empty apart from Gharbal or provide insight into why he was the sole detainee remaining.
More than 105,000 people have been held in Syria’s notorious prisoners since the civil war began in 2011, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). Many of the victims who have been freed in recent days have reported being put in a cell with at least 100 or 120 other people.
Moreover, the man’s shifting demeanor – trembling in fear one moment and calm the next – added to suspicions.
Courtesy: (Al Arabiya English)