A former Syrian navy official who oversaw a jail the place alleged human rights abuses came about has been charged with a number of counts of torture after being arrested in July for visa fraud expenses, authorities mentioned Thursday.
Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, who oversaw Syria’s notorious Adra Prison from 2005 to 2008 underneath recently 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’s an enormous step towards justice,” mentioned Mouaz Moustafa, govt director of the U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force. “Samir Ousman al-Sheikh’s trial will reiterate that the United States is not going to permit struggle criminals to return and dwell within the United States with out accountability, even when their victims weren’t U.S. residents.”
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Federal officers detained the 72-year-old in July at Los Angeles International Airport on expenses of immigration fraud, particularly that he denied on his U.S. visa and citizenship purposes that he had ever persecuted anybody in Syria, in accordance with a legal criticism. He had bought a one-way airplane 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 authorities 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 position as the pinnacle of Adra Prison, al-Sheikh allegedly ordered subordinates to inflict ache and was instantly 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 accordance with federal officers.
“Our consumer vehemently denies these politically motivated and false accusations,” his lawyer, Nina Marino, mentioned in an emailed assertion.
Marino known as the case a “misguided use” of presidency assets by the Justice Department for the “prosecution of a overseas nationwide for alleged crimes that occurred abroad towards non-American residents.”
U.S. authorities accused two Syrian officers of operating a jail and torture middle on the Mezzeh air pressure base within the capital of Damascus in an indictment unsealed Monday. Victims included Syrians, Americans and twin residents, together with 26-year-old American assist employee Layla Shweikani, in accordance with prosecutors and the Syrian Emergency Task Force.
Federal prosecutors mentioned they’d issued arrest warrants for the 2 officers, who stay at giant.
In May, a French courtroom sentenced three high-ranking Syrian officers in absentia to life in jail for complicity in struggle 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 Prison and brigadier normal 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 expenses, plus a most sentence of 10 years in jail for every of the 2 immigration fraud expenses.
