In the United States, a former Syrian prison chief of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime sentenced to sixty years in prison for torture
Samir Othman Al-Sheikh, a Syrian head of a Damascus prison between 2005 and 2008, was sentenced to sixty years of imprisonment in the United States by a federal court for torture, the American Department of Justice announced on Thursday, September 17.
Samir Othman Al-Sheikh, who ran the notorious Adra prison between around 2005 and 2008 under the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, was convicted of “committed human rights atrocities in Syria, including to silence political opponents”in “ordering and participating in the torture of prisoners”details the ministry press release. Three former victims notably testified, during the trial, about the abuse they had endured, as well as the acts of torture suffered by other prisoners.
“The conviction handed down in this case is a tribute to the courage of its victims”underlined the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, A. Tysen Duva, quoted in the press release.
“No refuge”
Samir Othman Al-Sheikh was also convicted of “visa fraud” and “attempted naturalization fraud”. According to the Justice Department, he is the highest-ranking former member of the Al-Assad regime to have been tried and convicted in person outside Syria. His lawyers said they would appeal.
The man, now aged 74, arrived in the United States in 2020, then applied for American nationality in 2023. Recognized on social networks by one of his compatriots who alerted a human rights activist, he was arrested and charged in July 2024 in Los Angeles for lying to the American authorities about his past in order to obtain a residence permit.
“Human rights violators who come to the United States will find no refuge here. We will find them, and they will be prosecuted and punished for their heinous crimes.”Mr. Duva further affirmed. Before the sentencing, Samir Othman Al-Sheikh defended himself by saying that he was not a supporter of Al-Assad and that he had not “served only as an employee”.
At the end of an eleven-day offensive, a rebel coalition dominated by the radical Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Cham overthrew the power of Bashar Al-Assad at the end of 2024. After the latter’s rout, the doors of numerous Syrian prisons were opened by the rebels, including that of Saydnaya, north of Damascus. Images of haggard and emaciated prisoners, some carried by comrades because they were too weak to escape their cells, then went around the world.
