There is a former military officer from Syria who was in charge of a prison where human rights abuses occurred accused with multiple counts of torture after he was arrested in July on visa fraud charges, authorities said Thursday.
Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, who was in charge of Syria's infamous Adra Prison from 2005 to 2008 under recently issued President Bashar al-Assad, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in California with multiple counts of torture and conspiracy to commit torture.
“It's a big step towards justice,” said Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the US-based Syria Crisis Task Force. “The trial of Samir Ousman al-Sheikh will reaffirm that the United States will not allow war criminals to come and live in the United States without accountability, even if the perpetrators were not US citizens – they suffer.”
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Federal officials arrested the 72-year-old in July at Los Angeles International Airport on charges of immigration fraud, specifically that he denied US visa and citizenship applications that he had made persecution of anyone. in Syriaaccording to a criminal complaint. He had purchased a one-way plane ticket to leave LAX on July 10, en route to Beirut, Lebanon.
Human rights groups and United Nations officials have accused the Syrian government of widespread abuses in its detention facilities, including torture and the arbitrary detention of thousands of people, in many cases without permission. tell their families.
The government fell suddenly in a rebel offensive last Sunday, ending the 50-year rule of the Assad family and sending the former president fleeing to Russia. Insurgents have freed tens of thousands of prisoners from facilities in several cities since then.
In his role as head of Adra Prison, al-Sheikh allegedly ordered subordinates to inflict pain and was directly involved in inflicting severe physical and mental pain on prisoners.
He ordered prisoners to the “Punishment Wing,” where they were beaten while hanging from the ceiling with their arms outstretched and controlled by a machine that folded their bodies in half at the waist , sometimes leading to broken spikes, according to federal officials.
“Our client vehemently denies these politically motivated allegations,” his attorney, Nina Marino, said in an emailed statement.
Marino called the case a “fraudulent use” of government resources by the Justice Department to “prosecute a foreign national for alleged crimes that occurred in a foreign country against non-American citizens.” ”
US authorities accused two Syrian officials of running a prison and torture facility at the Mezzeh air force base in the capital Damascus in an unsealed lawsuit on Monday. The victims included Syrians, Americans and dual citizens, including 26-year-old American aid worker Layla Shweikani, according to prosecutors and the Syrian Emergency Task Force.
Federal prosecutors said they had issued arrest warrants for the two officers, who remain at large.
In May, a French court sentenced three high-ranking Syrian officials in absentia to life in prison for war crimes in a largely symbolic but highly significant case against the Assad regime and the first such case in Europe.
Al-Sheikh began his career working in police leadership positions before moving to Syria's state security apparatus, which was focused on combating political dissent, officials said. He later became the head of Adra Prison and brigadier general in 2005. In 2011, he was appointed governor of Deir ez-Zour, a district northeast of the Syrian capital of Damascus, where there were violent crackdowns against protesters.
The indictment alleges that al-Sheikh immigrated to the US in 2020 and applied for citizenship in 2023.
If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy to commit torture and each of the three torture charges, plus a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each of the two immigration fraud charges.
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