Former Syrian official convicted of torture under Assad faces sentencing in the US
Prosecutors said he ordered torture to suppress dissent, and jurors also found he lied on immigration forms to enter the United States.
- A federal judge in Los Angeles is scheduled to sentence Samir Ousman Alsheikh today for torture and immigration fraud convictions stemming from his role in Syria's Adra Prison.
- Jurors found Alsheikh guilty in March of conspiracy to commit torture and three torture counts while managing Adra Prison from roughly 2005 to 2008, plus immigration fraud charges.
- Prosecutors asked District Judge Hernan Vera for a minimum 80-year sentence, citing victim testimony; Nidal Shikhani said he can "still hear the screams of others begging for mercy, repeating, Leave me, leave me."
- Defense attorneys Nina Marino and Collin Cate requested a five-year sentence, arguing Alsheikh is 74 years old with significant medical and cognitive conditions and willing to be deported.
- The case underscores accountability efforts targeting former Assad regime members; prosecutors argued Alsheikh knew his torture was wrong despite being detained at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024.
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Samir Alsheikh was found guilty by a US court of crimes against prisoners at the notorious Andhra prison - What former prisoners said in their testimonies
Assad-era Syrian official convicted of torture, jailed for 60 years by US court
Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 74, was charged in 2024 and convicted in March on one count of conspiracy to commit torture and three counts of torture for his involvement in the abuse of prisoners.
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Arriving in the United States in 2020, Samir Othman Al-Sheikh was arrested and charged there in July 2024 after applying for American nationality. He was found guilty of having committed "human rights atrocities" in the Adra prison he was running.
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cedarnews.netA Syrian who headed a prison in Damascus under the deposed President Assad has been sentenced to 60 years in prison in the United States. He was found guilty of torture. According to prosecutors, Samir Ousman Alsheikh, now 74, ordered subordinates to physically and psychologically torture prisoners to break their resistance to the Assad government. He was also sometimes personally involved in the abuse. Alsheikh headed the notorious central pr…
A former Syrian government official, who headed the notorious Adra prison in... under deposed President Bashar al-Assad...
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