ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States Department of Justice on Thursday said the former director of a central Damascus prison has been charged with torture by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.
“Samir Alsheikh is charged with torturing political dissidents and other prisoners to deter opposition to the regime of then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri, head of the justice department’s Criminal Division.
Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, 72, was chief of Adra prison 2005 until 2008. The justice department said that he “allegedly ordered subordinates to inflict and was sometimes personally involved in inflicting severe physical and mental pain and suffering on political and other prisoners.”
In addition to running the prison, Sheikh has held many roles within the then-ruling Baathist party and was appointed governor of Deir ez-Zor by Assad in 2011.
The indictment said that he immigrated to the US in 2020 and applied for citizenship in 2023.
“Alsheikh later allegedly lied about his crimes to obtain a U.S. green card,” according to Argentieri.
If convicted, Sheikh could face decades in prison.
“The allegations in this superseding indictment reveal unconscionable crimes and a clear violation of human rights,” said Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division.
Celebrations this week across Syria, sparked by the fall of the regime, were overshadowed by chilling stories that began to emerge from the country’s prisons, especially Sednaya in Damascus. Inmates released from decades of detention and torture told stories that provided a disturbing look into how the Assad family brutally treated dissidents during their long rule.
