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| - CLAIM: Bashar al-Assad’s cousin was hanged in a central square.
CONCLUSION: The video shows the hanging of a man convicted of allegedly murdering his mistress’s husband and has no relation to Bashar al-Assad.
Warning: The content contains violent content.
The claim has circulated widely on social media platforms, YouTube channels (such as Pentapostaga TV and NationalPost TV), and various websites, including bankingnews.gr, elkosmos.gr, and dimpenews.com.
The claim is accompanied by a video purportedly showing the hanging of a man in Latakia, Syria. The video allegedly depicts the execution of Suleiman al-Assad, a cousin of Bashar al-Assad, who was expelled from Syria following an attack by opposition and jihadist forces that led to the capture of Damascus.
To verify the video’s origin, we extracted a still frame and conducted a reverse image search:
One of the many results leads us to an Arabic-language website that provides the full video. According to the website, the man executed has no relation to Bashar al-Assad’s family, despite the similarity in surname. He is identified as Ammar Al-Asaad (not al-Assad) and was executed in the town of Khirbet Ghazala, located in southwestern Syria. The man was executed for murdering his mistress’s husband on August 11, 2024. Alongside him, his mistress, known by the first name “Diana,” who reportedly confessed, was also executed. Both were sentenced to death on November 14 by the Criminal Court of Daraa Governorate and were executed on December 7, 2024.
In another segment of the video taken from the execution site, a photograph of the murdered man is visible. The photo depicts Muhammad Ziad Al-Hamidan Al-Hajj Ali. The image, sourced from a Facebook post dated August 14, called for revenge for his murder. Therefore, it is clear that the execution was not politically motivated but a consequence of a criminal act.
On the left is the photo of the murdered man taken from the execution site, and on the right is the Facebook post:
Suleiman al-Assad is not Bashar al-Assad’s cousin but the son of his cousin Hilal, making him Bashar’s nephew. His current whereabouts are unknown. In 2015, Suleiman was convicted of murder and released in 2020. Hilal al-Assad was killed in 2014 during an armed confrontation.
This claim has also been verified by other fact-checking organizations such as Maldita, Teyit, and NewsMeter.
Conclusion
The video depicts the hanging of a man convicted of the alleged murder of his mistress’s husband and has no familial relation to Bashar al-Assad.
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