Hama province: SOHR activists have reported that communication was lost with a young woman called “Shadia Khedr Satliyah” hailing from Deir Shmail town in Masyaf countryside on September 25 at 04:00 pm, while she was returning from Masyaf city.

The incident then sparked broad public concern, amid appeals by her family for help to find her.

State media platforms later circulated a baseless narrative claiming that the woman had not been kidnapped, citing security sources, emphasizing that she and two other persons fabricated the story of the kidnap of the girl to collect money from her family.

The state media added that the young woman was found with two individuals in a house on the outskirts of Masyaf city, pointing out that investigations proved their involvement in “illegal activities.”

This comes a few weeks after the case of the kidnapping of a girl called “Mira Thabet” from Homs countryside, when state-affiliated media claimed that she escaped from her house.

Other similar incidents were twisted in the same way, amid accusations and criticism against state-affiliated media platforms of attempting to downplay the issue of the kidnapping of females.

The Syrian Observatory sees that this misleading and fabricated coverage aims at diverting attention from the increasing kidnaps in areas controlled by Damascus government in the past months and cover up its failure to control he security situation by focusing on individual or questionable narratives; this, in turn, undermines testimonies by victims and their families.