Not everything was as it seemed when CNN captured the release of a prisoner from a Damascus jail.
The man was not who he said he was. He was actually a lieutenant in the Bashar al-Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate, Salama Mohammad Salama, according to CNN.
The “prisoner” was known to torture those who did not pay him what he demanded, per the New York Post.
The man’s true identity came to light by fact-checkers Verify-Sy, who then published a report Sunday.
“We have subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity,” CNN said to The Post. “We are continuing our reporting into this and the wider story.”
Before the story was rebuked, CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward said it was “one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed.” She has been a reporter for 20 years.
The original footage showed a prisoner under a blanket locked in a windowless cell where he was eventually freed.
The man said his name was Adel Ghurbal and said he had been imprisoned for three months.
He said he did not know the Assad regime had collapsed.
The man’s story soon began to unravel as Verify-Sy pointed out he seemed “well-groomed, and physically healthy, with no visible injuries or signs of torture — an incongruous portrayal of someone allegedly held in solitary confinement in the dark for 90 days.”
He also “did not flinch or blink even when gazing up at the sky” even though he allegedly had not seen sunlight for three months.
CNN was in the area as it pursued leads on the missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice, CNN reported.
Salama’s current location is not known.
