Hezbollah-funded newspaper tries defaming “happiness smuggler” to Aleppo

Reporting by Faris Rifai

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The icon of “happiness smuggler” to Aleppo has fallen down, that was the title of the Lebanese Hezbollah supporting al-Akhbar newspaper about Rami Adham, 44, Syrian Finnish activist who has been working for 5 years in bringing toys to Syrian children under siege.

Al-Akhbar newspaper relied on a report published Friday in the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat about Mr Adham’s activities. The report mentioned that the organisation he works with to support orphans in Syria, “al-Kefah Institute”, said that donors had given €35 per orphan, but they had only received around €9-€20 per child.

Mr Adham explained that money was used to cover expenses of education and health services for the orphans and a monthly food basket beside the cash money given to them.

Moreover, the Finnish newspaper has alleged that Mr Adham has close links to jihadist groups, particularly raising concerns about a photo posted on Facebook of him with the hard-line Sunni preacher Abdullah al-Mohaisany, and a photo of him having breakfast with fighters, where a picture was on the wall presenting the slogan of al-Jabha al-Shamiya, which was used to accuse him of being Saudi jihadi cleric and accusing him of having close contacts with the Islamic State and Nusra Front,the group that was linked to al-Qaeda until it announced cutting ties with al-Gaeda early this year, then changing its name into Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

However Adham explained that at the time he was in need to approach many groups in order to be able to reach inside besieged Aleppo, “this is what needs to be done in war zone”

He added that he has been working in full cooperation with Finnish police and intelligence organisations, detailing that they were fully aware of what he was doing in Syria, and who who he was dealing with.

The finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat also presented a series of Whatsapp messages between Rami Adham and a photographer he was working with in Syria, which suggested that he faked being injured in a bombing.

However, Adham explained that the man who presented the conversation to the newspaper was his friend Sami Mishal, who used to work in ice-cream factory before revolution, then he became a correspondent to Aleppo Channel, he used to document activities of Syrian-Finnish Association. And the conversations he leaked to the newspaper were just sort of jokes between two friends.

Adham detailed that Mishal’s daughter was injured by a sniper and Adham helped him to move her to receive treatment in Turkey by the support of the Syria-Finnish Association.

Rami Adham confirmed that he is now planning to sue the newspaper for defaming him and the Association by accusing them of working with terrorists and misusing donations, with the help of 3 lawyers who volunteered to go ahead with the case.

On Friday, Finnish police said they had launched a preliminary investigation into Rami Adham use of donated money, as police are looking into concerns he may have been misusing donations.