Accounts on social media, including the account of a person named “Maher Sharaf al-Din,” circulated a video of a girl at an airport refusing to undergo fingerprinting procedures, with those who posted it claiming that the video belongs to the daughter of the detained Syrian doctor “Rania al-Abbasi,” and that she is alive and living in Europe based on what was published about the incident.
The Kashaf team followed the official account of Mr. “Hassan al-Abbasi,” Dr. Rania’s brother, and found that he had previously posted the clip to appeal to human rights organizations to verify the girl’s identity. Later, it became clear that the girl seen at the airport is not his niece, but rather a girl named “Dana” who lives with her parents in the Netherlands. The girl herself appeared in a video on her TikTok account in which she denied any connection to Dr. Rania al-Abbasi’s family, which Dr. Rania’s brother re-shared on his Instagram account to clarify the truth to the public.
Why is this claim misleading?
False attribution: The claim relied on initial speculation without following the official updates from the victim’s family; it has been conclusively proven, and through a statement by the girl in question, that there is no family relationship linking her to Dr. Rania al-Abbasi’s family.
