SDF accuses The Guardian of publishing forged document about ISIS detainees release
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Media Center of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reported on Wednesday that the British newspaper The Guardian published a report, which the SDF said was false.
On November 22, The Guardian said in a report that “Kurdish-led forces in charge of jails in northeast Syria housing about 10,000 men with alleged links to Islamic State are releasing prisoners in exchange for money under a reconciliation scheme, according to interviews with two freed men and official documents.”
“Syrian men imprisoned without trial can pay $8,000 (£6,000) as a fine to be freed, a copy of the release form shows,” The Guardian alleged.
“In the attached document, was mentioned the Article 13 of Decree No. 20 of 2019, under which the two ISIS members were released. After researching, it was found that the Decree mentioned in the fabricated document was an amnesty decree issued by the Syrian regime in 2019, which is non-applicable in north and east Syria,” the SDF said in a statement.
The statement revealed that at the upper right end of the fabricated document written the Democratic Autonomous Administration – Jazira Province, and on the other end there is a logo of the General Command of the YPG.
“The forgers cannot differentiate between the logo of the Autonomous Administration and that of the YPG,” the statement added.
The SDF pointed out that the document also mentioned the term “al-Jazeera Province, which is no longer used for four years now, and it was replaced in 2017 with al-Jazeera Region, and the fabricated document dated 2020.”
“The letterhead of all Autonomous Administration and SDF official documents, is written in three adopted official languages ‘Arabic- Kurdish-Syriac’, which wasn’t included in the document.”
The statement added that there is no seal in the forged document but there is one signature that is easy to forge.
Also, the forged document included the term “Public Reconciliation” which is not used at all in the north and eastern Syria, according to the SDF statement.
“Despite our absolute denial of such reports and our affirmation in advance to the journalist who prepared the report that the document was forged, it fell into the trap of forgery and false testimonies and insisted on publishing the report with the forged document,” the SDF Media Center said in a statement on November 22.
“In turn, we have written to the newspaper’s management, and we are still waiting for its response before publishing the details of the forgery, but the newspaper has not replied yet,” the SDF added.
Today’s SDF statement said “Insisting not to remove the forged report and not to apologize is an additional mistake that is not befitting the reputable institution.”
The statement called on The Guardian to open an investigation with the authors of the report regarding the reasons and justifications for this forgery.
It stressed that the SDF will take the appropriate legal measures to prosecute the authors of the forged report.