The United States (U.S.) media network Cable News Network (CNN) reported that it was “deceived” by a man who claimed to be a civilian released from a Syrian prison during a widely watched segment.
CNN confirmed that it was misled by the man, who was freed from a Syrian prison last week while the network’s cameras captured the event.
In the segment filmed on Wednesday, CNN viewers watched as the chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, accompanied by a guard from rebel forces that had overthrown Bashar al-Assad’s government, discovered a man locked in a prison cell, seemingly forgotten. The man, hidden under a blanket, was given water, told he was free, and led out of the prison holding Ward’s hand.
The man introduced himself in the segment as “Adel Ghurbal,” a “civilian” allegedly taken from his home by intelligence forces three months earlier for questioning. He appeared overwhelmed with emotion upon being told that Assad’s government had fallen.
However, on Monday evening, the network reported that the man’s real name was Salama Mohammad Salama and that he had served as a lieutenant in Assad’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate.
CNN obtained a photograph of the man and confirmed his identity using facial recognition software, the network reported.
Although the man appeared to have been imprisoned, “it remains unclear how or why Salama ended up in a Damascus prison, and CNN has been unable to reestablish contact with him,” the network stated.
The CNN team found the man while searching the prison for Austin Tice, a U.S. journalist kidnapped while reporting in Syria in August 2012.
The segment circulated widely on social media and was hailed as a glimpse into the newfound freedom of the Syrian people after decades of autocratic rule.
However, some questioned the authenticity of the encounter, noting the man’s appearance and his muted reaction to stepping into sunlight for the first time in months. CNN expressed confidence in Ward’s reporting but acknowledged earlier on Monday that it was investigating whether the man had misled the network about his identity. (A disclaimer has also been added to the video on CNN’s website.)
A Syrian fact-checking organization first suggested on Sunday that the man was Salama.
A CNN spokesperson stated that no one else knew the network’s journalists would visit the prison that day. The spokesperson also emphasized that the decision to release the man was made by the guards, not the CNN team.
The segment showed representatives of the humanitarian organization Syrian Arab Red Crescent assisting the visibly shaken man outside the prison. The organization posted on X on December 13th that the man had been found “without identification” and “reunited with a relative” in the capital, Damascus.
