Viral CNN segment showing Syrian prisoner being freed under scrutiny

CNN’s Clarissa Ward went viral last week when she covered the alleged rescue of a “Syrian prisoner," who she reported spent “three months in a windowless cell."

Verify-SY, a Syrian journalism organization specializing in fact-checking and combating misinformation, on Sunday reported the prisoner was actually Salama Mohammad Salama, also known as Abu Hamza, who was a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence notorious for torturing young men.  Brian Flood is a media editor/reporter for FOX News Digital. Story tips can be sent to brian.flood@fox.com and on Twitter: @briansflood. 

In the segment, Ward said she was searching for traces of missing journalist Austin Tice when she found a man hiding under a blanket inside a locked cell at a prison building at the Syrian Air Force intelligence headquarters in Damascus. She said the guard, who was a rebel fighter, made the CNN crew turn off the cameras while he shot the lock off the cell door. 

The man was under a blanket and initially didn't move but eventually came to his feet, and Ward can be briefly seen in the segment breathing a sigh of relief.