CNN’s report, titled “CNN reporter documents shocking moment prisoner found in secret Syrian prison, unaware of Assad’s overthrow,” is garnering attention around the world, but for all the wrong reasons.
The video report, released on December 12 and shared on CNN’s website, YouTube channel and X platform, shows correspondent Clarissa Ward walking through what appears to be a secret prison in Damascus.
Accompanied by an armed individual, allegedly a member of the opposition, Ward was filmed opening the cell containing 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 later transferred to Damascus.
He said he had been held in solitary confinement, in complete darkness, for 90 days.
According to CNN, the transfer took place three days before the fall of the regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, reported AL Arabiya.
Although Ward was said to have been in Damascus in search of missing American journalist Austin Tice, the authenticity of this discovery has raised doubts and led to questioning.
Who is Adel Gharbal?
Despite claiming not to have seen sunlight for months, Gharbal showed no physical reaction to daylight – such as twitching, squinting or blinking – that would be normal for a person exposed to darkness for long periods of time.
On the contrary, he seemed overjoyed and even looked directly at the sky.
He was also clean, tidy and in good health, with no visible signs of malnutrition or abuse, which is often reported among prisoners subjected to harsh conditions.
Verify-Sy, an independent Syrian fact-checking organization founded in 2016, launched its own investigation into the allegations to confirm the man’s identity.
According to the organization, public records did not provide any information about a person named Adel Gharbal.
Further investigations in his hometown of Homs revealed that the person identified as Gharbal was actually “Salama Mohammad Salama,” known by the nickname “Abu Hamza.”
Salama is a first lieutenant in the Syrian military intelligence service and has a notorious reputation in Homs, particularly in the al-Bayyada neighborhood. Residents identified him as a prominent figure at a security checkpoint known for abuse, theft, and forcing civilians to become informants, Verify-Sy said in its report.
Local sources also paint a grim picture of Salama’s past. According to residents and former detainees, he participated in military operations in Homs in 2014, arrested civilians on trumped-up charges, and tortured young men who refused to pay bribes or comply with his demands.
Families of the victims confirmed these allegations to Verify-Sy, citing arbitrary arrests and violent abuses carried out by Salama.
After the regime fell, Salama reportedly began portraying himself as a victim, claiming he was “forced” to commit the crimes. 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.
The sources also revealed that Salama’s detention in Damascus lasted less than a month – not 90 days, as CNN reported – and was the result of an internal dispute over the division of extortion money with superior officers.
Cracks in CNN’s narrative
The report also left key questions unanswered.
Ward did not explain why the prison was completely empty except for Gharbal, nor did she provide any insight into why he was the only remaining prisoner.
More than 105,000 people have been held in Syria’s notorious prisons since the start of the civil war in 2011, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Many of the prisoners released in recent days said they were in a cell with at least 100 or 120 other people.
Additionally, the change in the man’s demeanor—from trembling with fear one moment to calmness the next—further heightened suspicions, Klix.ba writes.
