A former Syrian military officer who oversaw a prison where alleged human rights abuses took place Was accused Several cases of torture were registered after he was arrested in July on visa fraud charges, officials said Thursday.
Samir Osman al-Sheikh, who oversaw Syria's notorious Adra prison from 2005 to 2008 recently kicked out President Bashar al-Assad was indicted on multiple counts of torture and conspiracy to commit torture by a federal grand jury in California.
“This is a major step towards justice,” said Mouez Mustafa, executive director of the US-based Syrian Emergency Task Force. “The trial of Samir Osman al-Sheikh will reiterate that the United States will not allow war criminals to come and live in the United States without accountability, even if their victims are not American citizens.”
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Federal authorities detained the 72-year-old man at Los Angeles International Airport in July on immigration fraud charges, specifically that he denied in his US visa and citizenship applications that he had ever molested anyone. in SyriaAccording to a criminal complaint. He had purchased a one-way plane ticket departing from 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 torturing and arbitrarily detaining thousands of people, in many cases without notifying their families.
The government fell in a sudden rebel attack last Sunday, ending the Assad family's 50-year rule and forcing the former president to flee to Russia. Rebels have since released thousands of prisoners in several cities.
In his role as head of Adra prison, al-Sheikh allegedly ordered the infliction of pain on subordinates and was directly involved in inflicting severe physical and mental pain on prisoners.
According to federal officials, he ordered prisoners to the “punishment wing”, where they were beaten by hanging from the ceiling and using a device with outstretched arms that bent their bodies in half at the waist, resulting in This sometimes resulted in spinal fractures.
“Our client vigorously denies these politically motivated and false allegations,” his attorney, Nina Marino, said in an emailed statement.
Marino called the case a “misuse” of government resources by the Justice Department to “prosecute a foreign national for alleged crimes committed in a foreign country against non-U.S. citizens.”
US officials accused two Syrian officials of running a prison and torture center at the Mezeh Air Force Base in the capital of Damascus in an indictment unsealed on Monday. According to prosecutors and the Syrian Emergency Task Force, the victims included Syrians, Americans and dual citizens, including 26-year-old American aid worker Laila Shweikani.
Federal prosecutors said they have issued arrest warrants for the two officers, who remain at large.
In May, a French court sentenced three high-ranking Syrian officials to life in prison in absentia for involvement in war crimes in a largely symbolic but historic case against Assad's regime and the first such case in Europe.
Officials said al-Sheikh began his career working in police command positions before moving into Syria's state security apparatus, which focused on countering political dissent. He later became the head of Adra prison and brigadier general in 2005. In 2011, he was appointed governor of Deir ez-Zour, a region northeast of the Syrian capital, Damascus, where there has been a violent crackdown against protesters.
The indictment alleges that Al-Sheikh immigrated to the United States in 2020 and applied for citizenship in 2023.
If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each of the conspiracy to commit torture charges and the three torture charges, plus a maximum of 10 years for each of the two immigration fraud charges. Faces a sentence of up to a year in prison.