BBC News - Gay Girl in Damascus: Tom MacMaster defends blog hoax: "13 June 2011 Last updated at 09:19 GMT
Gay Girl in Damascus: Tom MacMaster defends blog hoax
Image from the Facebook group, Free Syrian blogger Amina Arraf An online campaign was launched to secure 'Amina's' release after the blog told of her arrest
The student behind a hoax blog which claimed to be written by a gay woman in Syria has defended his actions.
Tom MacMaster, a US student at the University of Edinburgh, said the blog had been a fiction - but that the facts it contained were true.
The 40-year-old married man's blog, A Gay Girl in Damascus, described life in the Syrian city amid the current political unrest.
It gained a worldwide readership and was closely followed by news reporters.
The blog, dating back to February this year, claimed to document the life of 25-year-old Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari, a half-Syrian, half-American lesbian living in Damascus."
