From the Guardian · · 3m
Syrian torturer sentenced to 60 years in US court
A former prison chief from Bashar al-Assad's regime faces the harshest punishment yet handed down by a foreign court for crimes during Syria's civil war.
In brief
A former prison chief from Bashar al-Assad's regime faces the harshest punishment yet handed down by a foreign court for crimes during Syria's civil war. Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, who ran a notorious torture wing at Adra prison, was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in a Los Angeles federal court, marking the first…
Former Syrian prison chief sentenced
A US federal court in Los Angeles sentenced Samir Ousman al-Sheikh to 60 years in prison for running Adra prison's notorious torture wing between 2005 and 2008. He is the highest-ranking Assad regime official ever tried in person by a foreign court.
He ran Wing 13, the punishment wing
Al-Sheikh oversaw an underground torture chamber called Wing 13 at Adra prison on Damascus's outskirts, where he watched prisoners and regime opponents being interrogated and tortured through surveillance cameras.
Victims described horrific torture methods
Witnesses testified that guards folded prisoners into car tires, suspended them by wrists from ceiling pipes, and used a device called the 'magic carpet' that crushed victims between wooden panels. One victim recalled al-Sheikh stomping on the device himself.
Victims still traumatized two decades later
Survivors submitted testimony describing lasting psychological damage. One man said he still hears prisoners begging for mercy. Another reported chronic panic attacks and anxiety. A third cannot carry his own son due to back injuries from torture.
“I still hear the screams of others begging for mercy.”
He fled to the US in 2020
Al-Sheikh moved to the United States in 2020, obtained a green card, and applied for citizenship. He was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024 on immigration fraud charges. Prosecutors later added four torture-related charges.
Judge called conduct heinous and brutal
US District Judge Hernan D Vera said the conduct was 'heinous, unimaginably cruel and almost unspeakably violent and brutal' before handing down the 60-year sentence. Prosecutors had sought a minimum of 80 years.
“The conduct was heinous, unimaginably cruel and almost unspeakably violent and brutal.”
First Assad official tried in the US
Al-Sheikh is the first Assad regime official to go to trial in the United States and the highest-ranking regime official tried anywhere in person. Syria's new government has held in absentia trials for other former officials since al-Assad's regime collapsed in December 2024.
Rare use of extraterritorial torture law
Al-Sheikh is only the fifth person prosecuted under the extraterritorial Torture Act, which allows the US to prosecute individuals physically present in America for torture committed abroad. The law has rarely been used since its enactment.
Message to Syria and other perpetrators
Justice Department officials said the sentence sends a clear message that human rights violators who come to the US will be found and prosecuted. Human rights advocates said it signals to Syria's new government that accountability for regime crimes is possible.
“Human rights violators who come to the United States will receive no safe harbor here.”
The takeaway
Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, who ran a notorious torture wing at Adra prison, was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in a Los Angeles federal court, marking the first trial of a high-ranking Assad regime official in the US.
