Syrian charged in US for torture at Damascus prison

A 72-year-old Syrian man, arrested in Los Angeles in July, has been charged in the United States for his role in torture at a prison near Damascus. From 2005 to 2008, under the regime of the recently ousted dictator Bashar Assad, Samir Ousman al-Sheikh was responsible for the notorious Adra prison.

He was detained at Los Angeles airport this summer for allegedly lying on his visa application about never having persecuted anyone in Syria. Sheikh reportedly ordered subordinates to torture prisoners and was directly involved in human rights abuses.

In one section of Adra prison, prisoners were severely mistreated while suspended from ceilings, resulting in broken bones. Sheikh began his career as a police officer in Syria and later became the head of the prison.

In 2011, he was appointed governor of Deir ez-Zour, where protests were violently suppressed. He came to the US in 2020 and applied for an American passport last year.

Last weekend, Assad’s dictatorship ended following a rebel offensive, with Russia granting him asylum on the day of the takeover. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Rebels have freed thousands of prisoners in Syria, including many political dissidents detained for years. Many bodies were found in prisons and morgues, including that of the well-known Syrian refugee and activist Mazen Hamada, who suffered severe trauma after his imprisonment in Syria and reported regime atrocities to the world.

Hamada disappeared from the Netherlands in 2020, ended up back in Syria, was arrested, and is believed to have been killed shortly before Assad was ousted.

Source: NOS

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