A former Syrian government official has been charged with torture in the United States, authorities said Thursday.
Samir Ousman Alsheikh, who was in charge of Damascus Central Prison from 2005 and 2008, was indicted by the state’s grand jury on multiple counts of torture and conspiracy to torture.
US authorities say the allegations against Alsheikh are “appalling”.
He was arrested earlier this year at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on two counts of immigration fraud, and had purchased a one-way ticket from LAX to Beirut, Lebanon.
According to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, Alsheikh hid his employment in prison and denied prosecuting anyone in his US visa and citizenship applications.
US officials say Alsheikh suffered “extreme physical and mental pain and tortured political and other prisoners” in his role under ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
It is alleged that he ordered the detainees to go to the “punishment wing” of the prison, where they would be beaten, hung from the ceiling and fitted with a machine that would cause “severe pain” sometimes leading to broken spines.
“About 20 years ago, the defendant was accused of torturing prisoners in Syria and, today, we are close to holding him accountable for those heinous crimes”, Special Agent in Charge of the HSI Los Angeles Field Office, Eddy Wang, said in a statement.
If convicted, Alsheikh faces up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit torture; up to 20 years for each of the three counts of torture; and up to 10 years for each of the two counts of immigration fraud.
In a statement sent to the Associated Press, Alsheikh’s lawyer says he “firmly denies these politically motivated and false allegations”.
The 72-year-old man immigrated to the US in 2020 and was living in Lexington, South Carolina, court documents said.
This comes after thousands of prisoners were freed by rebels in Syria after the fall of the Assad regime.
Videos show dozens of prisoners being released, while other footage shows people running towards prisons in hopes of finding their missing loved ones.
Human rights groups and United Nations officials have previously blamed the former Syrian government for widespread abuses in prisons.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said around 60,000 people were tortured and killed in prisons run by Assad.
On Thursday, the Syrian army said it planned to close notorious prisons and hunt down those involved in the killing or torture of prisoners.
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