VERIFYING images shared in the wake of Assad’s ouster from Syria

Syrian rebels overthrew President Bashar Assad on Dec. 8, ending his family’s more than 50 years of rule in the country. Assad reportedly fled to Russia, where he was granted political asylum.

One image shared across social media appears to show Assad and his wife arriving in Russia after fleeing Syria. A video shared thousands of times appears to show the aftermath of his plane after it crashed.

A graphic image of a man being tortured has been shared with claims it shows a real scene from inside one of the notorious prisons in Syria.

QUESTION #1

Does this image show Assad and his wife arriving in Russia?

THE SOURCES

• Syria Stream video from Feb. 10, 2023
• RevEye, a reverse image search tool

THE ANSWER

No, this image doesn’t show Assad and his wife arriving in Russia. It’s from February 2023 and was taken in Syria.

WHAT WE FOUND

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed to TASS, a Russian news agency, that Assad and his family were granted political asylum in Russia, but VERIFY has been unable to find any photographic evidence of their arrival in the country. The image being shared is nearly two years old.

Using RevEye, VERIFY conducted a reverse image search and found the image was lifted from this video posted to YouTube on Feb. 10, 2023 by Syria Stream, a channel that posts Syrian news footage. 

The video shows Assad visiting a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, on Feb. 10, 2023, after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the region. When comparing the viral image and the 2023 video, Assad and his wife are wearing the same outfits, standing with the same people and walking through the same hallway. 

QUESTION #2

Does this video posted on social media show the aftermath of Assad’s plane crash?

THE SOURCES

• Video posted to X on Sept. 3, 2024
• Indian Air Force X post from Sept. 2, 2024
• InVid and RevEye, video and photo forensics tools

THE ANSWER

No, this video doesn’t show the aftermath of Assad’s plane crash. The video predates Assad’s ousting from the Syrian government.

WHAT WE FOUND

This video doesn’t show the aftermath of Assad’s plane crashing. It shows a different plane crash and is unrelated to the recent events in Syria.

Using InVid, a video forensics tool, VERIFY analyzed the video and conducted a reverse image search of each frame. The same video was posted to X on Sept. 3, 2024, appearing to show an Indian Air Force plane crash near the Indian border with Pakistan.

The original post says, “A MiG-29UPG of the #India's Air Force crashed last night near the border with #Pakistan, tallying at the 6th crash of the IAF in 2024 till date.”

The Indian Air Force confirmed the crash, saying the IAF MiG-29 crashed after a malfunction and the pilot was able to eject safely.

TASS, a Russian news agency, reported that Assad and his family members arrived in Moscow, and did not die in a plane crash. 

QUESTION #3

Does this image show a real scene of torture under Assad’s reign in Syria?

THE SOURCES

• Dana News and Akharin Khabar, Persian news sites
• Egrat Museum’s Instagram page
• RevEye, a reverse image search tool

THE ANSWER

No, the image doesn’t show a real scene of torture under Assad’s reign. It is actually a wax museum exhibit in Iran.

WHAT WE FOUND

Human rights organizations have long accused Assad and the Syrian government of torture, but this image does not show that. It’s actually an image of an exhibit at the Ebrat Museum in Tehran, Iran.

The museum, a former prison, uses wax mannequins to portray human rights abuses carried out by the SAVAK, Iran’s pre-revolution intelligence agency. Nearly identical images from the exhibit, featured in Persian news articles about the museum, match the scene falsely claimed to depict Syria.

The museum has posted images of similar wax figures on Instagram.