Pages on social media circulated a report claiming that a ninth-grade girl had been abducted and raped by a member of the General Security, in the village of Tal Sakin in the Mahardah area of the Hama countryside.
The fact-checking team contacted an official source in the Mahardah area, who stated that a woman had taken the girl to a young man she knew, where he assaulted her, before residents reported the incident to the General Security, after which patrols went to the location and returned the girl to her family. To verify the account independently, the team contacted the mukhtar of Mahardah, who confirmed that the young man is a local resident and not a member of the General Security, adding that, according to his statement, the forensic examination confirmed that the girl was unharmed.
Why is this claim misleading?
An error in identity attribution: The claim rested on attributing the assault to a member of the General Security, contrary to what the verification sources stated, and on presenting different circumstances for the incident, so as to suggest that an official body was involved in the crime.
