Former Syrian prison official faces sentencing in U.S. torture case
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A former Syrian military official convicted of torturing prisoners at Adra Prison during Bashar al-Assad’s rule is due to be sentenced in a U.S. federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday, potentially facing decades in prison.
Samir Ousman Alsheikh, who headed Adra Prison in Damascus from about 2005 to 2008, was convicted in March of one count of conspiracy to commit torture and three counts of torture. A jury also found him guilty of immigration-related fraud and attempting to obtain US citizenship through false statements.
U.S. prosecutors asked District Judge Hernán D. Vera to impose a minimum sentence of 80 years. Alsheikh’s defense attorneys requested five years, citing his age and what they described as significant medical and cognitive conditions. They also said he was willing to be deported to Syria.
During the trial, victims testified that prisoners were beaten while suspended from ceiling pipes and subjected to a device that folded their bodies in half. Prosecutors said Alsheikh ordered and participated in the torture of prisoners as part of efforts to suppress political dissent.
The U.S. Justice Department said that Alsheikh came to the United States in 2020 after concealing his past conduct from immigration authorities. He was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024.
Following his tenure at Adra Prison, Alsheikh was appointed governor of Deir ez-Zor Governorate, eastern Syria, in 2011.
The case is part of broader U.S. efforts to prosecute former Syrian officials accused of human rights abuses committed during the Assad era.