CNN admits man freed in viral segment was notorious lieutenant for Assad regime, not civilian as he claimed

CNN admitted Monday it had been misled by a man who the network initially reported in a viral segment to be a Syrian prisoner freed from a secret jail.

CNN’s Clarissa Ward’s news segment spread widely last week when she covered the alleged rescue of a “Syrian prisoner,” who she reported spent “three months in a windowless cell” in one of the Assad regime’s secret prisons. Ward called it “one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed” in her journalism career. However, the man appeared to be in good condition for someone locked in a horrific prison and not given food or water in several days, leading to questions about the surface narrative.

Ward confirmed the man was actually Salama Mohammad Salama, also known as Abu Hamza, who was a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence. CNN’s report said he was known for extortion and harassment, while a local Syrian fact-checker said he was even known to commit torture and murder. 

“We can confirm the real identity of the man from our story last Wednesday as Salama Mohammed Salama,” Ward posted on X to caption a CNN report about the ordeal. 

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“CNN initially found the man while pursuing leads on the missing US journalist Austin Tice. In a video report, chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward and her team, accompanied by a rebel guard, came across a cell in a Damascus jail that was padlocked from the outside. The guard blew off the lock with a gun, and the man was found alone inside the cell, under a blanket,” CNN reported. 

“When he emerged into the open air, the man appeared bewildered. Questioned by the rebel fighter who freed him, the man identified himself as Adel Ghurbal from the central Syrian city of Homs,” CNN continued. “An image obtained by CNN on Monday now points to the man’s real identity – said to be a lieutenant in the Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate, Salama Mohammad Salama.”

CNN reported that a Homs resident “gave CNN a photograph said to be of the same man while he was on duty, in what appears to be a government office” and his identity was confirmed with facial recognition software.

“The photograph shows him sitting at a desk, apparently in military clothing. CNN is not publishing the photo to protect the source’s anonymity,” CNN reported, adding that “multiple residents of Homs said that the man was Salama, also known as Abu Hamza” but it’s “unclear how or why Salama ended up in the Damascus jail, and CNN has not been able to reestablish contact with him.”

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Verify-Sy, which is affiliated with the Poynter Institute that also runs PolitiFact, first reported the man was providing bogus information.

“Salama, known as ‘Abu Hamza,’ is a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence, notorious for his activities in Homs. Residents of the Al-Bayyada neighborhood identified him as frequently stationed at a checkpoint in the area’s western entrance, infamous for its abuses,” Verify-SY reported. 

“Abu Hamza reportedly managed several security checkpoints in Homs and was involved in theft, extortion, and coercing residents into becoming informants,” Verify-SY continued. “According to locals, his recent incarceration—lasting less than a month—was due to a dispute over profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer. This led to his detention in one of Damascus’s cells, as per neighborhood sources.”

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The report said Salama has a “grim history” and has “participated in military operations on several fronts in Homs in 2014, killed civilians,” adding that he was “responsible for detaining and torturing numerous young men in the city without cause or on fabricated charges.”

“Many were targeted simply for refusing to pay bribes, rejecting cooperation, or even for arbitrary reasons like their appearance. These details were corroborated by families of victims and former detainees who spoke with Verify-Sy,” the report said. 

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Fox News Digital’s David Rutz contributed to this report.