Former Syrian navy official who oversaw infamous jail indicted in California on federal torture fees

A former Syrian navy official who oversaw a jail the place alleged human rights abuses befell has been charged with a number of counts of torture after being arrested in July for visa fraud fees, authorities mentioned Thursday.

Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, who oversaw Syria’s notorious Adra Jail from 2005 to 2008 underneath just lately ousted President Bashar al-Assad, was charged by a federal grand jury in California with a number of counts of torture and conspiracy to commit torture.

“It is an enormous step towards justice,” mentioned Mouaz Moustafa, government director of the U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Activity Power. “Samir Ousman al-Sheikh’s trial will reiterate that the US won’t enable battle criminals to come back and reside in the US with out accountability, even when their victims weren’t U.S. residents.”

Federal officers detained the 72-year-old in July at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport on fees of immigration fraud, particularly that he denied on his U.S. visa and citizenship functions that he had ever persecuted anybody in Syria, in response to a felony grievance. He had bought a one-way aircraft ticket to depart LAX on July 10, en path to Beirut, Lebanon.

Human rights teams and United Nations officers have accused the Syrian authorities of widespread abuses in its detention amenities, together with torture and arbitrary detention of 1000’s of individuals, in lots of circumstances with out informing their households.

The federal government fell to a sudden insurgent offensive final Sunday, placing an finish to the 50-year rule of the Assad household and sending the previous president fleeing to Russia. Insurgents have freed tens of 1000’s of prisoners from amenities in a number of cities since then.

In his function as the top of Adra Jail, al-Sheikh allegedly ordered subordinates to inflict ache and was immediately concerned in inflicting extreme bodily and psychological ache on prisoners.

He ordered prisoners to the “Punishment Wing,” the place they have been overwhelmed whereas suspended from the ceiling with their arms prolonged and have been subjected to a tool that folded their our bodies in half on the waist, generally leading to fractured spines, in response to federal officers.

“Our consumer vehemently denies these politically motivated and false accusations,” his lawyer, Nina Marino, mentioned in an emailed assertion.

Marino referred to as the case a “misguided use” of presidency assets by the Justice Division for the “prosecution of a international nationwide for alleged crimes that occurred abroad towards non-Americans.”

U.S. authorities accused two Syrian officers of working a jail and torture heart on the Mezzeh air drive base within the capital of Damascus in an indictment unsealed Monday. Victims included Syrians, People and twin residents, together with 26-year-old American assist employee Layla Shweikani, in response to prosecutors and the Syrian Emergency Activity Power.

Federal prosecutors mentioned that they had issued arrest warrants for the 2 officers, who stay at massive.

In Might, a French courtroom sentenced three high-ranking Syrian officers in absentia to life in jail for complicity in battle crimes in a largely symbolic however landmark case towards Assad’s regime and the primary such case in Europe.

Al-Sheikh started his profession working police command posts earlier than transferring to Syria’s state safety equipment, which targeted on countering political dissent, officers mentioned. He later grew to become head of Adra Jail and brigadier basic in 2005. In 2011, he was appointed governor of Deir ez-Zour, a area northeast of the Syrian capital of Damascus, the place there have been violent crackdowns towards protesters.

The indictment alleges that al-Sheikh immigrated to the U.S. in 2020 and utilized for citizenship in 2023.

If convicted, he faces a most sentence of 20 years in jail for the conspiracy to commit torture cost and every of the three torture fees, plus a most sentence of 10 years in jail for every of the 2 immigration fraud fees.