Oscar-winning Syrian group hopes award will stop ‘massacres’
BEIRUT — A young volunteer in the Syrian search-and-rescue group featured in an Academy Award-winning documentary said Monday he hopes the award will help stop “massacres” in his country, and described a U.S. decision to block him from travelling to Los Angeles for the Oscars as “America’s loss.”
Khaled Khateeb, a 21-year-old cinematographer and volunteer with the Syrian Civil Defence, told The Associated Press from Turkey that although he had expected the Netflix documentary “The White Helmets” to win, he stayed awake all night smoking shisha with friends and watching the ceremony.
“It is a media prize, it’s not a political prize,” he said. “But still it sheds light on the tragedy of the Syrian people. Maybe it will help stop some of the massacres,” he added. “It is a strong movie.”
Khateeb was scheduled to arrive on Saturday in Los Angeles on a Turkish Airlines flight departing from Istanbul, but his plans were upended after U.S. officials reported finding “derogatory information” regarding him. According to internal Trump administration correspondence seen by The Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security decided at the last minute to block him from travelling to Los Angeles for the Oscars.