Prisoner CNN found in Damascus prison reportedly an intelligence officer

The man a CNN crew claimed to have found in a secret prison in Syria was actually an air force intelligence officer who had been arrested due to disputes with his colleagues over profit sharing, according to Verify-Sy, a Syrian fact-checking group.

CNN has now launched an investigation into the report.

Verify-Sy said the real name of the detainee is Salama Mohammad Salama, who is known as Abu Hamza, a man reportedly "notorious for his activities in Homs".

He managed several security checkpoints and was involved in theft, extortion, and coercing residents into becoming informants, the group said.

The man told CNN that he had been arrested three months ago, but "according to locals, his recent incarceration lasted less than a month" and 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 neighbourhood sources."

The former detainee, released from prison without identification, was reunited with a relative in Damascus, the Syrian Red Crescent said.