Former Syrian Official Faces Sentencing for Torture in U.S. Court

A former Syrian military official convicted of torturing prisoners during President Bashar Assad's regime is facing a possible decades-long prison sentence in the U.S.

A federal judge in Los Angeles is scheduled to sentence Samir Ousman Alsheikh on Thursday. A jury found him guilty in March of one count of conspiracy to commit torture and three counts of torture while in charge of Syria's infamous Adra Prison from roughly 2005 to 2008.

Human rights groups and United Nations officials have accused the Syrian government of widespread abuses in its detention facilities, including torture and arbitrary detention of thousands of people, in many cases without informing their families.

Prosecutors state that Alsheikh, in an effort to suppress political dissent, sent certain prisoners to a wing of Adra Prison where they were held in isolation cells and subjected to torture. During the two-week trial, three victims described being beaten while suspended from pipes and the use of a device that bent their bodies in half at the waist. One testified that Alsheikh stomped on this device, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Defendant knew that what he was doing was wrong," DOJ prosecutors stated in a sentencing memo filed this month. "Nonetheless he ordered and participated in the torture of his victims because he had the power to do so and because he thought he would never be held accountable."

The memo included statements from several victims. One, Nidal Shikhani, recounted, "I can still hear the screams of others begging for mercy, repeating, ‘Leave me, leave me.’"

Prosecutors have requested a minimum sentence of 80 years. Alsheikh's attorneys have called for a five-year sentence, citing his age of 74 and significant medical and cognitive conditions. They also noted his willingness to be deported to Syria, where the current government is reportedly seeking to hold former members of the Assad regime accountable.

Alsheikh arrived in the U.S. in 2020 and applied for citizenship, but prosecutors allege he concealed his involvement in torture. Federal authorities detained him at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024. Jurors also convicted him in March of lying to U.S. immigration authorities, fraudulently obtaining a green card, and attempting to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.