Days after airing an emotional phase displaying a person supposedly free of a Syrian jail, CNN up to date its story to acknowledge that the “sufferer” of Bashar al-Assad’s regime was really an Assad intelligence officer accused of torturing and extorting native residents.

The community’s replace didn’t embody a retraction or an apology and comes after CNN got here underneath fireplace for probably “fabricating” the story after fact-checking group Confirm-Sy reported that the person had been recognized as a torturer for the deposed Syrian dictator. Within the wake of Confirm-Sy’s report, CNN acknowledged that it was investigating whether or not the freed prisoner had given their reporters a “false identification.”

Following the sudden fall of al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship this month, CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward went viral with a shocking report that featured her crew discovering a startled “prisoner” in a secret jail facility in Damascus.

Accompanied by a Syrian insurgent serving as an armed guard, based on CNN, Ward’s staff visited a jail constructing on the Syrian Air Pressure Intelligence headquarters as a part of a seek for lacking American journalist Austin Tice. No person on the facility was beforehand conscious that the digicam crew was coming, and the go to was unannounced, the community added.

As soon as contained in the constructing, based on the report, Ward observed that one door was locked and it appeared that somebody was inside. After the armed guard shot the lock off the door, the CNN staff discovered a person hiding underneath a blanket and seemingly traumatized. The person, who recognized himself as Adel Ghurbal from Homs, requested for water and meals whereas claiming he had not seen daylight for 3 months.

After the guard referred to as for an ambulance, the person stated he’d been arrested three months prior and had frolicked in a number of jails. He additionally asserted that he’d been interrogated over his cellphone contacts. The Syrian Arab Crimson Crescent, who took the person for medical consideration, later stated on social media that that they had dropped him off with relations.

CNN’s story rapidly got here underneath intense scrutiny, largely as a result of “Adel Ghurbal” appeared pretty well-groomed and bodily wholesome for somebody who had supposedly been tortured in solitary confinement. Moreover, his response to the daylight didn’t match his declare that he’d been at the hours of darkness for months.

Amid allegations that CNN had “fabricated” the story, unbiased fact-checking group Confirm-Sy – a part of Poynter’s Worldwide Reality-Checking Community – concluded that the person within the community’s report was really an officer in Assad’s army who was well-known within the space for his “grim historical past” of detaining and torturing Syrian civilians.

“The staff found that his actual identify is ‘Salama Mohammad Salama,’ a revelation that introduced stunning particulars to gentle. Salama, often known as ‘Abu Hamza,’ is a primary lieutenant in Syrian Air Pressure Intelligence, infamous for his actions in Homs,” Confirm-Sy reported. “Residents of the Al-Bayyada neighborhood recognized him as steadily stationed at a checkpoint within the space’s western entrance, notorious for its abuses.”

The actual fact-checker continued: “Abu Hamza reportedly managed a number of safety checkpoints in Homs and was concerned in theft, extortion, and coercing residents into turning into informants. In line with locals, his current incarceration—lasting lower than a month—was because of a dispute over profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer.”

After Confirm-Sy revealed its findings on Sunday, CNN denied that its reporters had fabricated its reporting. Nevertheless, the community famous it had launched an investigation into the prisoner’s identification and claims.

“Nobody aside from the CNN staff was conscious of our plans to go to the jail constructing featured in our report that day,” a CNN spokesperson stated in a press release to The Impartial. “The occasions transpired as they seem in our movie. The choice to launch the prisoner featured in our report was taken by the guard – a Syrian insurgent. We reported the scene because it unfolded, together with what the prisoner advised us, with clear attribution.”

The spokesperson concluded: “Now we have subsequently been investigating his background and are conscious that he might have given a false identification. We’re persevering with our reporting into this and the broader story.”

In the meantime, Confirm-Sy acknowledged that native residents “testified that Abu Hamza has been making an attempt to garner sympathy because the fall of the regime, claiming he was ‘compelled’ into committing his crimes.” It additionally reported that the person within the CNN report has “deactivated his social media accounts and adjusted his cellphone quantity, presumably to erase proof of his involvement in armed actions and conflict crimes.”

In its up to date story on Monday night, CNN stated that it had obtained a picture from an area resident that confirmed the person to “be a lieutenant within the Assad regime’s Air Pressure Intelligence Directorate, Salama Mohammad Salama.” The community added that facial recognition software program used on the picture “offered a match of greater than 99 p.c with the person CNN met within the Damascus jail cell.”

Whereas acknowledging that Confirm-Sy was the primary to positively establish the prisoner as Salama, CNN additionally famous that Salama’s “present whereabouts are unknown” after insurgent guards handed him over to the Crimson Crescent, who stated he’d been returned to relations in Damascus.