Egypt: 5 arrested after creating fake Aleppo images

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Egypt: 5 arrested after creating fake Aleppo images

Images have proven an effective tool in bringing the Syrian humanitarian crises to the forefront.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry has confirmed that a group of five people were caught creating images depicting scenes of suffering in Aleppo that they planned to circulate as real pictures from Syria.

The residents from Port Said were caught in the middle of their shoot with a 12-year-old girl covered in red paint holding a teddy bear in what looks like a war-savaged background. The photographer, Mustafa, told authorities that he “normally photographed weddings and ceremonies, but had an idea for something else”.

“In a conversation with them, the suspects revealed that they had shot a series of scenes to be spread on social media, as actual pictures from Aleppo,” the ministry confirmed.

What the girl was standing in front of was “the ruins of a house that had been slated for demolition by the authorities some time earlier” and the “blood” was obtained from a “tin of red paint”.

The girl was known to the photographer beforehand, and came with her mother and three other local men to create the shoot.

Images have proven an effective tool in bringing the Syrian humanitarian crises to the forefront as President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces captured the city from opposition forces last week.