The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

After large pressure exerted | A doctor and the father of the heroine of “The Cave” documentary appear in documentary produced by “Syrian TV”

The documentary denies the regime's involvement in the chemical attack on eastern Ghouta and other stories

The Syrian regime’s media, represented by the “Syrian TV”, has produced a new documentary about eastern Ghouta, simulating the chemical attack on the area and dismissing the well-known story on the attack. In this documentary, the regime enlisted “Khaled Al-Dabbas”, a doctor who was imprisoned by regime security services for more than three times, and the father of the female doctor “Amani Ballour”.

 

It is worth noting that Dr. Amani Ballour became famous after the displacement agreement of eastern Ghouta, when she was invited to attend several international forums, the latest of which was the session held by the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria, after an invitation by US Department of State to Dr. Amani as a representative of the Syrian people.

 

The documentary circulated by regime media portrays an untrue situation in eastern Ghouta during the period when the region was under the control of opposition factions, and pinpoints the responsibility for the chemical attack on the factions. The documentary also shows the “Syrian Army” as the body seeking to liberate Ghouta from “terrorists”.

 

According to SOHR sources, Dr. Khaled Al-Dabbas was arrested for three times since regime forces captured eastern Ghouta in March 2018 when he was arrested and detained for two years, during which he was tortured brutally before he was released. The doctor was arrested and released for two other times by regime security services in late 2020, where he was subjected to large pressure to appear in the documentary.

 

In the meantime, the father of Dr. Amani Ballour was also subjected to large pressure by regime security services, and he was forced to appear in regime media outlets while disowning his daughter, claiming that “she was forced by gunmen to run ‘the Cave’ hospital in Kafr Batna district”.

 

 

Dr. Amani Ballour

 

Amani Ballour is a 30-year-old pediatrician from Kafr Batna in eastern Ghouta, and she is the heroine of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Cave, which tells of the struggles of running an underground hospital during the Syrian civil war. The documentary was produced by National Geographic Society. The documentary profiles Ballour leading the hospital during the violent and dangerous attacks, including chemical attacks, on eastern Ghouta, which forced the residents to resort to underground tunnels, in light of siege conditions and food and medical supply shortages. Dr. Amani Ballour has been awarded the Council of Europe’s Raoul Wallenberg Prize for her personal courage, bravery and commitment in saving hundreds of lives during the Syrian war.

 

 

Dr. Khaled Al-Dabbas

 

On December 16, reliable sources in eastern Ghouta informed SOHR that regime security sources arrested a doctor in Kafr Batna town, after storming his clinic, where they took the doctor to a regime prison in Damascus. It worth noting that the doctor was arrested previously by regime security services, after regime forces captured eastern Ghouta in March 2018, for “working in field clinics during the opposition factions’ control of the region”. The doctor had been released only five months earlier, before regime security services arrested him again. The doctor later was released and arrested for the third time and released. Dr. Al-Dabbas had worked in “the Cave” hospital and decided to stay in eastern Ghouta after a spiritual man known as Sheikh Bassam Dafda’ promised him, when regime entered eastern Ghouta, that he would not be arrested.