Ex-Syrian prison chief faces decades in US prison at torture sentencing

A former Syrian military officer convicted of torturing detainees during Bashar Assad's rule is awaiting sentencing in the United States, where prosecutors are seeking a prison term of at least 80 years.

Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 74, is due to appear before U.S. District Judge Hernan D. Vera in Los Angeles. A jury found him guilty in March of one count of conspiracy to commit torture and three counts of torture tied to his command of Syria's Adra Prison between roughly 2005 and 2008. He was also convicted of lying to immigration authorities and of fraudulently obtaining a green card and attempting to naturalize as a U.S. citizen.

Prosecutors allege that Alsheikh, aiming to suppress political dissent, had certain prisoners transferred to a wing of the facility where they were confined in small isolation cells and subjected to torture. During the two-week trial, three victims described being beaten while suspended from ceiling pipes and being restrained in a device that bent their bodies at the waist. One witness said Alsheikh stamped on the device with his foot, according to the Department of Justice.

In a sentencing memorandum filed this month, federal prosecutors argued that Alsheikh understood the wrongfulness of his actions but ordered and took part in the abuse because he held power and believed he would escape accountability. The filing included statements from several victims, among them Nidal Shikhani, who said he can still hear the screams of others pleading for mercy.

Defence lawyers Nina Marino and Collin Cate have urged a five-year sentence, citing Alsheikh's age and what they describe as significant medical and cognitive conditions. They said he was prepared to be deported to Syria, where the new government has moved to hold former members of the Assad administration to account. In a Sept. 3 memo, the lawyers wrote that any wish for the sentence to send a message cannot serve as the basis for a just punishment.

Alsheikh arrived in the United States in 2020 and applied for citizenship, but prosecutors say he hid his involvement in torture. Federal authorities arrested him at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024.

Human rights organisations and United Nations officials have long accused the Syrian government of widespread abuses in its detention facilities, including torture and the arbitrary detention of thousands of people, often without notifying their families.