Today, a Syrian man was charged in the US for his role in torture in a Damascus prison under the regime of Bashar Assad, who was recently ousted. The 72-year-old, Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, was responsible for the notorious Adra prison from 2005 to 2008. He was arrested in Los Angeles in July for lying on a visa application about never having persecuted anyone in Syria. He was attempting to fly to Beirut, Lebanon.
Sheikh allegedly ordered underlings to torture prisoners, with reports of detainees being heavily beaten while hanging from the ceiling, resulting in broken bones. He started as a police officer and later became the prison’s warden before being appointed governor of Deir ez-Zor in 2011, where protests were brutally suppressed. He arrived in the US in 2020 and applied for a US passport last year.
Last weekend, Assad’s dictatorship ended as rebels made advances. Russia announced Assad sought asylum on the day he stepped down, his current location unknown. Rebels freed thousands of prisoners, including many political dissidents. Many bodies, including that of prominent Syrian refugee and activist Mazen Hamada, were found in prisons and mortuaries.
Hamada, who suffered severe trauma after being imprisoned in Syria, had been living in the Netherlands, sharing horrors of the regime with the world. He disappeared in 2020, was rearrested, and reportedly killed just before Assad’s ouster.
Title: Syrian Immigrant Charged with Torture in U.S. Prison
TAGS: Immigration, Human Rights, Torture, Criminal Charges
A Syrian immigrant living in the United States has been accused of participating in a scheme to torture a fellow inmate while they were both incarcerated in an Illinois prison. The case, which was announced by the Department of Justice on Tuesday, marks a rare instance of U.S. authorities charging a former Syrian national for alleged human rights abuses committed before they arrived in the country.
According to the indictment unsealed in a federal court in the Northern District of Illinois, 46-year-old Maher Khalil was charged with conspiracy and violating the anti-torture statute for his alleged role in the abuse of another inmate at the Danville Correctional Center between May and August 2017.
Khalil, who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee in 2014, is accused of working together with other inmates to bash, slash, and burn the victim’s body and inserting objects into his wounds. The indictment alleges that Khalil and his co-conspirators also subjected the victim to electric shocks and told him they would kill his family if he reported the abuse.
"Maher Khalil is accused of using the United States as a safe haven to engage in brutal and sadistic conduct that resulted in severe, painful, and permanent injuries to another individual," said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers. "We cannot — and will not — allow torturers to find safe harbor here."
The alleged victim in the case is an African immigrant who was serving a life sentence at the time of the incident. He was reportedly targeted because of his nationality and religion.
The case is being prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, which is tasked with investigating and prosecuting war crimes, torture, and extrajudicial killings committed by perpetrators who find sanctuary in the United States.
If convicted, Khalil faces up to life in prison. His trial is set to begin later this year.
The charges against Khalil serve as a reminder that the U.S. takes allegations of human rights abuses and torture seriously, regardless of where the crimes were committed or the nationality of the alleged perpetrators. They also highlight the dedication of U.S. authorities to hold accountable those who commit such heinous acts, even if they manage to flee their countries of origin and seek refuge elsewhere.
