Freed Belgian writer ‘certain’ Assad regime not behind chemical attack

Belgian writer Pierre Piccinin who was freed Sunday after four months of captivity in Syria said upon his return to Europe that he and his fellow captive, Italian journalist Domenico Quirico, were certain that the Assad regime was not responsible for the Aug. 21 chemical attack.

“It’s not the government of Bashar al-Assad that used the sarin gas or another combat gas … we are sure about it following a conversation that we overheard,” Piccinin said in an interview with Belgian broadcaster RTL.

Piccinin’s claim stands in stark contrast to declassified intelligence reports from France and the US, which put the blame for the deadly attack on Assad’s regime. Piccinin, who largely avoids looking into the camera during the interview, did not provide further proof for his claim. Instead, he said he and Quirico would publish their information later, “at an appropriate time.”

Piccinin says he was captured on his eighth trip to Syria, describing himself as a vigorous supporter of the Syrian rebels’ quest to oust Assad and introduce democracy. That, he told RTL, makes it all the more difficult for him to say that it wasn’t Assad behind the al-Ghouta attack.

The claim could not be independently verified, and Quirico was quoted later Monday in La Stampa saying there is no way to know the truth behind it.

“It’s folly to say I know that it wasn’t Assad who used the gas,” he was quoted saying on the website.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.