A former Syrian government official has been charged with torture in the United States, Syrian authorities said Thursday.
Samir Othman Al-Sheikh, who supervised Damascus Central Prison from 2005 to 2008, was indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple counts of torture and conspiracy to commit torture.
The American authorities said that the accusations against the sheikh are “chilling.”
He was arrested earlier this year at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on two immigration fraud charges, and had purchased a one-way ticket from LAX to Beirut, Lebanon.
According to a statement issued by the US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, Al-Sheikh hid his prison job and denied persecuting anyone in applications for a US visa and citizenship.
American officials say that Al-Sheikh personally inflicted “severe physical and mental pain and suffering on political prisoners and others” during his role during the era of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
He allegedly ordered detainees to go to the “punishment wing” of the prison, where they were beaten while suspended from the ceiling and subjected to a device that caused “excruciating pain,” sometimes resulting in spinal fractures.
“For nearly 20 years, the defendant has been accused of torturing prisoners in Syria, and today, we are one step closer to holding him accountable for those heinous crimes,” Special Agent in Charge of the HSI Los Angeles Field Office, Eddie Wang, said in a statement.
If convicted, Al-Sheikh faces up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy to commit torture charge; Up to 20 years for each of the three torture charges; and up to 10 years for each of the two immigration fraud charges.
In a statement to the Associated Press, Al-Sheikh's lawyer said he “strongly denies these false, politically motivated accusations.”
Court documents showed that the 72-year-old moved to the United States in 2020 and was living in Lexington, South Carolina.
This comes after thousands of prisoners were liberated by rebel forces across Syria after the fall of the Assad regime.
Video clips showed the release of dozens of detainees, while other footage also showed people running towards prisons in the hope of finding their missing loved ones.
Human rights groups and United Nations officials have previously accused the former Syrian government of committing widespread violations in prisons.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nearly 60,000 people had been tortured and killed in Assad-run prisons.
The Syrian opposition forces said on Thursday that they plan to close the harsh prisons and pursue those involved in killing or torturing detainees.
