Bishop Paul Yazigi was not found in Adra prison

Accounts on X published a photo of a patient lying on a hospital bed, claiming that the photo was of Bishop Paul Yazigi after his release from Adra Central Prison in Syria. The photo was accompanied by the following text: “Bishop Paul Yazigi was found alive in Adra Central Prison.”

In another claim, other accounts on X published the photo, claiming that the photo was of a man named Muhammad Qabbani from Lebanon who was released from Sednayah prison. The claim reads: “This man from Lebanon, named Muhammad Qabbani, was released by the revolutionaries from Sednayah prison in Damascus. A short time ago, his family recognized him and contacted him.” 

Kashif verified the photo and the two claims, and found them to be misleading. The photo is of a Lebanese man named Muhammad Adeeb Qabbani, who came to Syria for treatment and was not detained in Sednayah or Adra prisons.

Lebanese MTV presenter Nawal Berri interviewed the man who appears in the circulated photo lying on a bed inside Bisan Hospital in Homs Governorate, thinking that he was detained in Sednayah prison. However, he answered that he is a Lebanese citizen named Muhammad Qabbani from Lebanon. During the interview, the young man accompanying Qabbani came and showed the presenter the patient’s personal card, which was issued on 16/3/2023 and bears the name Muhammad Mumtaz Adeeb Qabbani from Al-Bashoura in Beirut, born in 1947.

The young man said, “Qabbani is a sick person who came from Lebanon to Syria for treatment due to the high prices in Beirut,” and he was not detained in Syrian prisons.

Beirutdailynews published the photo on 12/11/2024, accompanied by the following description: “The Lebanese citizen from Beirut, Muhammad Qabbani, was found in the Bisan Hospital in Syria. After asking him, he said that he was near the Cola area of ​​Beirut. Please share so that we can reach his family.” 

As for the claim that Bishop Paul Yazigi was found alive in Adra prison, it is also misleading, as the Observatory searched the official page of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East on Facebook and did not find any information or mention of finding Bishop Yazigi, while the page denied finding him on 12/9/2024 in a post that read : “A statement issued by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, Damascus, December 9, 2024. Social media sites and news pages are circulating a number of news, especially regarding the church situation in Syria. We call on our children to obtain news from its official source – the page of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East.” 

Arab and international media outlets, including Sky News, published, quoting the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), on 23/4/2013: “An armed terrorist group kidnapped Bishop Youhanna Ibrahim, head of the Syriac Orthodox community in Aleppo and its environs, and Bishop Paul Yazigi, head of the Greek Orthodox community in Aleppo and its environs, while they were carrying out humanitarian operations in the village of Kafr Dael in the Aleppo countryside.”