A person filmed by CNN being launched from a Damascus jail by anti-regime forces has been recognized as a former Syrian regime intelligence officer, not an abnormal citizen as he had claimed, in response to native residents.
CNN initially encountered the person whereas investigating leads on lacking U.S. journalist Austin Tice. In a video report, chief worldwide correspondent Clarissa Ward and her crew, accompanied by a guard, found a padlocked cell inside a former Syrian air power intelligence jail. The guard blew off the lock, revealing a person alone underneath a blanket.
Appearing bewildered, the person recognized himself as Adel Ghurbal from Homs. He claimed he had been imprisoned for 3 months and was unaware of the Assad regime’s collapse. He described his confinement as a part of a collection of detentions and didn’t present additional context about his arrest.
However, proof obtained later contradicted his account. CNN acquired {a photograph} from a resident of the Bayada neighborhood in Homs that seems to indicate the person on obligation in a authorities workplace, sporting army clothes. Facial recognition software program later supplied a match of greater than 99% with the person discovered within the Damascus jail.
Multiple Homs residents recognized him as Salama Mohammad Salama, also called Abu Hamza, a lieutenant within the Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate.
Residents accused Salama of managing regime checkpoints in Homs and alleged he had a popularity for extortion and harassment. The {photograph}, which CNN is withholding to guard its supply, aligns with descriptions of Salama’s function throughout the regime.
It stays unclear how Salama ended up within the Damascus jail or the circumstances resulting in his imprisonment. According to Verify-Sy, a Syrian fact-checking web site that first recognized him as Salama, he was detained for lower than a month following a dispute with a higher-ranking officer over “profit-sharing from extorted funds.” CNN couldn’t independently confirm this declare.
After his launch, insurgent guards handed Salama over to the Syrian Red Crescent, which later posted a photograph of him on social media. The group said they’d facilitated his return to family members in Damascus.
Attempts to reestablish contact with Salama have been unsuccessful and his present whereabouts stay unknown. The incident raises questions in regards to the identities of prisoners and the shifting allegiances throughout the fractured Syrian battle.
Source: www.dailysabah.com