Russia parades Syrian witnesses to disprove gas attack

INTERNACIONAL.- Russian diplomats brought alleged “witnesses” from Syria, including an 11-year-old child, to the headquarters of the global chemical weapons watchdog in the Netherlands to disprove allegations of a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government.

The group of Syrians then held a press conference where they denied any poison gas attack took place in the town of Douma this month and said that some of them were filmed in “staged videos” in the aftermath of the April 7 suspected attack.

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Russian diplomat Alexander Shulgin said the aim of the briefing was to present “evidence” that allegations of a chemical attack in Douma are “completely null and void.”

“Today we can prove that the footage of the White Helmets is a crude staged action,” he said, in reference to the Syrian opposition’s Civil Defense group of first responders. Shulgin is Russia’s ambassador to the Netherlands and representative to the global chemical weapons watchdog.

At the presser, the witnesses claimed there was no smell of chemicals, and said people who were choking had inhaled smoke and dust from a bombardment. The press conference included testimony by an 11-year-old boy, Hassan Diab, who was seen in the aftermath of the April 7 attack being doused with water by first responders.