Syrian medics say were coerced into false chemical attack testimony

Douma, Syria –

Two Syrian doctors and a nurse said in a series of interviews over the weekend that Bashar Assad’s government coerced them into providing false testimony to international investigators after a deadly 2018 chlorine attack.

The three, who treated the wounded at a field hospital in the rebel-held town of Douma near Damascus after the April 7, 2018, attack, said they were summoned to national security headquarters in the capital.

“I was told … that they knew where my family is in Damascus,” said orthopedic surgeon Mohammed al-Hanash, giving public testimony which would have been impossible before the fall of Assad’s government on Dec. 8.