CNN: Freed Syrian prisoner in report was intelligence officer

CNN acknowledged this week it had been misled by a man purporting to be a Syrian prisoner but who was, in fact, a former intelligence officer under the Assad regime.

The outlet said in a report posted on Monday it had encountered the man and documented his release in a report "while pursuing leads on the missing US journalist Austin Tice."

The man told international correspondent Clarissa Ward and her team he had been kept in the Damascus jail cell they found him in for three months and claimed he was not aware the Assad regime had fallen.

Ward's dramatic report was prominently featured across CNN and shared widely on social media platforms over the weekend.

On Monday, the network said it obtained an image proving the man's real identity to be Salama Mohammad Salama, a member of the Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate.

Several Syrian residents confirmed the man's true identity, the outlet said, noting its journalists have not been able to establish contact with Salama again.

A note on the original video report on CNN's website reads: "In a report from Syria, CNN's Clarissa Ward discovers a man in a cell in a Damascus jail who claimed to be an ordinary citizen imprisoned by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. CNN's subsequent reporting suggests the man was a former intelligence officer with the deposed regime."

“No one other than the CNN team was aware of our plans to visit the prison building featured in our report that day," a CNN spokesperson told The Hill.  "The events transpired as they appear in our film. The decision to release the prisoner featured in our report was taken by the guard - a Syrian rebel. We reported the scene as it unfolded, including what the prisoner told us, with clear attribution.  We have subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity.

"We are continuing our reporting into this and the wider story.”

Updated at 10:24 a.m. EST