These Photos Do Not Depict a Guard Disguised As a Woman to Flee Syria
The Claim
one of the guards who served under the ousted president Bashar al-Assad disguised as a woman to escape from Syria to Lebanon but was caught.
News posted on
Emerging story
Recently, two photos showing a man disguised in women's clothes went viral on X. The photos allegedly depicted one of the guards who served under the ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
X users claimed that the alleged guard disguised as a woman to escape from Syria to Lebanon but was caught.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar investigated the viral claim and found it to be misleading. The photos were taken from two videos that predate the fall of al-Assad regime and the new Syrian government’s campaign to catch the remnants of the al-Assad regime.
Two Outdated Photos Depicting an Iraqi Thief
After a reverse image search for the first photo that showed the man standing without his full disguise, Misbar’s team found a video containing similar frames published by the Emirati electronic newspaper al-Ain News on Sep. 22, 2024.
Through reverse image search, Misbar’s team found that the photos are taken from a video of an Iraqi thief disguising as a woman to steal from car owners in Baghdad.
According to the caption provided by the outlet, the Iraqi man disguised as a woman to lure Taxi drivers in Baghdad then steal them.
A reverse image search on the second photo which shows the man sitting in his full disguise on a sofa led to a YouTube video published by the Iraqi news platform al-Saabiea. The video showed different scenes of the man than what was published by al-Ain, including the viral photo.
Baghdad Today, an independent Iraqi news outlet, reported on the incident in June 2023 featuring the viral photo showing the man in his full disguise.
According to the report, the police in Anbar province arrested the man in June 2023 in Ramadi, the provincial capital. The man went to a salon to wear his disguise in order to steal from crowded places.
Saadoun Mohsen Khalaf, the accused, had been convicted of theft and had completed his sentence a year ago according to the police.
Syria Arrests the Official Behind Saydnaya Executions
The claim went viral days after the arrest of Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, the chief of military justice nationwide under ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed his arrest on Dec. 26, 2024. Hassan was the highest-ranking officer whose arrest has been announced since Assad's ousting on December 8, considering that he sentenced "thousands of people" to death.
According to the book "The Black List" published by the organization "With Justice" in 2019, in cooperation with the Middle East Institute in Washington, Hassan agreed to add certain phrases to the statements of the detainees and obtain their signatures on those confessions by force without realizing their content.
These fabricated signatures reportedly facilitated the process of issuing death sentences or long prison sentences, during trials that last only a few minutes.
The Syrian Ministry of Interior has been waging a campaign in recent days against those it describes as remnants of the former regime.
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