Marcello Ferrada de Noli, one of the leaders of the Swedish Doctors for Human Rights non-governmental organization (SWEDHR), said Wednesday he and his colleagues has been receiving threats following the release of their article exposing a purportedly staged video by White Helmets group, a volunteer rescue service operating in Syria.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In the beginning of March, the SWEDHR released an article claiming that the White Helmets' video of a child reportedly treated after a chemical attack showed fake treatment, including an intracardiac injection done with an empty syringe, which would have killed a child if the baby had not already been dead.

"The threats I receive are anonymous, somewhat non-specific. I see them on Twitter, on social networks, my colleagues also receive them. I feel a lot of discomfort because of this. But I hope that my article, despite all this, will be seen by many people," de Noli told Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

The professor said that he was simply making public his conclusions that he could prove openly and honestly.

De Noli added that the SWEDHR would continue its work.

On April 6, despite Russia's call for a thorough investigation into the reported chemical attack in Idlib, the United States launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the military airfield in Ash Sha’irat, located in the vicinity of the Homs city. US President Donald Trump said the strike was a response to the alleged chemical weapon use.

On April 4, the Syrian National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces reported a chemical weapon attack in Idlib. According to recent data provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), 84 people, including 27 children died in the suspected chemical attack.

Damascus joined the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons after a major sarin gas attack in Syria's East Ghouta in 2013, agreeing to destroy its stockpile under Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) oversight. In January 2016, the OPCW announced that all chemical weapons in Syria had been destroyed.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem denied the government’s involvement in the Idlib incident , saying it had never used chemical weapons on either civilians or terrorists operating in the country and would never do so.

On April 5, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed, commenting on the reports of chemical attacks in the Syrian Idlib province, that the White Helmets, as well the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, could not be trusted. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said that the White Helmets was not a trustworthy source of information.