Rebels show video of arrested Syrian colonel disqualified from presidential race

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Opposition fighters broadcast video footage Tuesday purporting to show Colonel Muhammad Hussein al-Kana’an—a Syrian army officer and recently disqualified candidate for Syria’s June presidential elections—confessing that he entered the presidential elections under orders from the Syrian Army.

The Free Syrian Army-affiliated Tbarak a-Rahman Brigade claimed to arrest al-Kana’an this week, with fighters displaying the colonel’s military identity card for the camera. Al-Kana’an says he submitted an application to run for president after receiving threats from army brass when the orders were not obeyed. The colonel also says that he was arrested by opposition forces while traveling on the Damascus-Dar’aa highway, perhaps in a sign that the regime does not have the tight control over the vital artery leading to Jordan that it claims to.

In the video, the colonel calls the election process in Syria “a political game and media fabrication, adding that that all other candidates were subjected to the same pressures and threats. Syria’s Supreme Constitutional Court announced Sunday that it had disqualified all but three presidential candidates—among them current President Bashar al-Assad—of the 23 who originally applied.  Watch Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zZd_5dfMfM