The Video Does Not Show a Civilian Being Beaten and Humiliated Due to His Alawite Background

The Claim

Recently, accounts and pages on Facebook and X circulated a video, claiming it shows a man crying as he recounts being beaten and humiliated in prison by security members of the new Syrian administration due to his Alawite background.

The claims accompanying the video included several hashtags such as #Syria_Under_Occupation and #Stop_Sectarian_Extermination, while also tagging accounts of international organizations, human rights activists, and Western media outlets to amplify the narrative.

Verify-Sy conducted an Open Sources (OSINT) research to verify the authenticity of a video claiming to show a “civilian being beaten and humiliated in prison by members of the new Syrian administration because of his Alawite ethnic background”. Our investigation revealed that the video is misleading.

A reverse search using the “InVid” tool revealed that the video is old, dating back to the early days following the fall of the regime on December 8, 2024. It features a man named Hamdi Saleh, speaking about the torture and humiliation he suffered in the Assad regime slaughterhouses prison cells.

Hamdi, who visited the Air Force Intelligence branch in Homs to check if one of his detained friends was still alive but could not find them, spoke passionately about his time in detention at the branch in 2015, during which he was never charged. He recalled how the regime's militia exploited his hearing impairment to torture and bully him inside the prison.

Follow-up: We have received several messages stating that the person's name is Hamed Al-Atassi, not Hamdi Saleh as indicated in the source. As we were unable to verify the true identity, we are publishing this clarification to ensure accuracy.

Networks attributing the ousted regime human rights violations to the new syrian administration

In this context, a group of social media accounts is circulating old videos documenting violations committed by members and militias of the previous regime. These videos are reframed and attributed to members of the new Syrian administration, distorting the informational context and hindering efforts to pursue and hold war criminals accountable.

1. The video “does not” show a civilian being beaten and humiliated by members of the new Syrian administration because of his Alawite background.
2. The person in the video is named “Hamdi Saleh”, who is speaking about his suffering in the prisons of the ousted regime.
3. This material has been categorized under "Manipulation of Facts" according to the Verify-Sy methodology.