CNN may have been tricked by a so-called “secret prisoner” from a Syrian prison who one news agency says is a first lieutenant in the Syrian Air Force Intelligence.
During the segment, CNN’s Clarissa Ward and a rebel fighter exposed a prisoner who appeared to be unaware of the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
But now, the Verify-SY news agency – which claims to be a news platform that identifies fake news and corrects it – is identifying the “prisoner” as a Syrian official suspected of killing civilians and protecting and torturing young men in Homs. His behavior as a prisoner, the organization wrote on Twitter, “appears to be an attempt to improve his status.”
TheWrap reached out to CNN for clarification.
CNN captured the moment Ward found the man, who was wearing a blanket in a locked cell at an empty prison.
“We were hoping to do a story about the tens of thousands of Syrians who disappeared in Assad’s tunnels, and especially about the American journalist, Austin Tice, who disappeared,” Ward later said on CNN.
Ward was shown entering the cell after the guard shot the lock.
“Is there anyone?” Ward asks several times. The man came out from under the cover and raised his hands.
A CNN translation said the man said he had been in custody for three months.
“You’re done, you’re done,” Ward tells him, helping him out of the car and into the car.
Social media quickly questioned the situation.
The post Freed Syrian Prisoner by CNN’s Clarissa Ward May Have Been the Secret Service Chief appeared first on TheWrap.