New York City, Dec 12 (EFE).- A United States grand jury has charged the former head of a Damascus prison with torturing opponents of now-deposed Syrian president Bashar as-Assad, the justice department reported Thursday.
Samir Ousman Alsheikh, a 72-year-old resident of South Carolina, headed Damascus Central Prison, known as Adra, between 2005 and 2008.
“In that role, Alsheikh allegedly ordered subordinates to inflict and was sometimes personally involved in inflicting severe physical and mental pain and suffering on political and other prisoners,” the justice department said in a statement.
It said Alsheikh allegedly ordered prisoners to be taken to the “punishment wing”, where they were beaten while suspended from the ceiling with their arms extended and subjected to torture in which a device bent their bodies in half at the waist, sometimes breaking their spines.
US Attorney Martin Estrada of the Central District of California, which is handling the case after the man was arrested in his jurisdiction in July, called the allegations “chilling” and said the US will not be a “safe harbor for those accused of committing atrocities abroad.”
The defendant led torture in Adra prison “to deter opposition to the regime” of Assad, the department said, and after emigrating to the US in 2020, lied to authorities about his human rights violations to obtain a green card, subsequently applying for citizenship last year.
The individual allegedly held various positions in the Syrian police and state security, was associated with the country’s ruling Baath party and was appointed governor of Deir ez-Zor province by Assad in 2011, the statement said.
Alsheikh was initially charged in August with visa fraud and attempted naturalization, but his case was sent to a grand jury in Los Angeles, California, which on Thursday added four more charges: three of torture and one of conspiracy to commit torture.
If convicted, he faces maximum sentences of 20 years in prison for each of the three counts of torture, another 20 for conspiracy to commit torture, and another 10 for each count of immigration fraud.
“The defendant is accused of torturing prisoners in Syria almost 20 years ago, and today, we are one step closer to holding him able for those heinous crimes,” said Special Agent in Charge Eddy Wang of the HSI Los Angeles Field office in the statement. EFE
nqs/tw
