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A federal judge in California has sentenced a former Syrian prison warden to 60 years for torturing inmates and lying to immigration officials to get into the United States.
A jury convicted Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 74, in March of conspiracy to commit torture, three counts of torture, one count of visa fraud and one count of attempted naturalization fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
Alsheikh was involved in torturing political dissidents to deter opposition to the regime of then-Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to the Justice Department.
Government officials say Alsheikh is the highest-ranking former member of the Assad regime to be tried and convicted in person outside Syria.
The Justice Department had sought no fewer than 80 years in prison, while Alsheikh requested five years, citing his age and his chronic medical conditions.
In handing down the sentence on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Hernán Vera remarked on the “utter reprehensibility” of Alsheikh’s crime, Courthouse News Service reported.
“The conduct was heinous, unimaginably cruel and unspeakably violent and brutal,” the judge reportedly said.
Nina Marino, Alsheikh’s attorney, said her client plans to appeal the sentence.
In a statement, First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said he hoped the sentence “gives some semblance of healing and closure to this defendant’s victims.”
“Criminals who inflict the type of savage brutality that this defendant did on his victims must never be granted refuge in our country,” Essayli said.
Samir Ousman Sheikh allegedly ordered inmates to a wing of a Syrian prison where they were then tortured with a device known as the ‘flying carpet.’
During Alsheikh’s trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Alsheikh ordered and participated in the torture of prisoners while he headed the Adra Prison, also known as Damascus Central Prison, from around 2005 to 2008.
Jurors heard testimony from three of Alsheikh’s victims who said they were packed into small, filthy, cold, wet cells that were infested with insects and other vermin. They described being tortured and seeing and hearing the torture of other prisoners.
The victims testified about being fastened to a device known as the “Flying Carpet,” which folded their bodies in half at the waist; about being manacled to the ceiling and suspended sometimes for days; and about being beaten while immobilized inside tires, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that when detainees refused Alsheikh’s orders to harm political prisoners, he ordered them to be sent to an underground section of the prison known as Wing 13, where they were tortured.
Prosecutors also presented evidence that Alsheikh, who came to the country in 2020, lied to U.S. immigration authorities about his background to secure a green card and also on an application to naturalize as a U.S. citizen.
Alsheikh has been in custody since his arrest at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024.
Khaled Abdul Malek, who testified about being detained and tortured under Alsheikh’s direction, praised the sentence in a statement.
“The land of freedom will never be a safe haven for slaughterers and those who committed crimes against humanity,” Malek said. “This trial is not the end, but the first step on the road toward accountability and justice for everyone whose hands have been stained with the blood of innocent people.”