Friday, June 10, 2011

A bizarre incident of stolen identity

The curious story of the mistaken identity of a kidnapped Syrian blogger is baffling.

Amina Arraf, known on her blog as “a gay girl in Damascus” has become a worldwide personality in a matter of days. She is a fierce critic of President Assad’s government, and his clampdown on protestors. News of her kidnapping, allegedly by government agents in Damascus, angered thousands of her readers. In response a facebook page was instantly set up calling for her immediate release.

A bizarre twist of events has shown that in fact the woman supposed to be Amina Arraf is in fact not her. It is a case of a stolen identity as the woman in the pictures is really Jelena Lecic, who lives in London. Lecic says "I realised when I saw my picture on a Guardian online story and… before I knew it, it was everywhere.” “"It's absolutely astonishing that someone has been using my picture and obviously campaigning with my face on it." She thinks the images are taken from her Facebook account.

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