Syria · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
Los Angeles Judge Hernan Vera Sentences Samir Ousman Alsheikh To 60 Years For Torture
Samir Ousman Alsheikh, former Adra Prison director, sentenced to 60 years in federal prison. Convicted in March on torture and conspiracy to torture, plus immigration fraud charges.
Whether courts should justify the sentence as a deterrent message.
9 of 11 outlets skipped it: a restitution hearing for victims is expected in coming months.
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The Guardian
“Human rights violators who come to the United States will receive no safe harbor here.”Read the original ↗
The Guardian emphasises a deterrence message, while Al Jazeera foregrounds the defence argument against “message” sentencing.
60 Years for Adra Torture
A federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced former Syrian prison official Samir Ousman Alsheikh to 60 years in a U.S. prison for torturing inmates and lying to immigration officials, after a jury convicted him in March on counts including conspiracy to commit torture and torture while he headed Syria’s Adra Prison from roughly 2005 to 2008.
“sentenced a former Syrian prison warden to 60 years for torturing inmates”
U.S. prosecutors said Alsheikh was involved in torturing political dissidents to deter opposition to the regime of then-Syrian President Bashar Assad, and they described victims being fastened to a device known as the “Flying Carpet,” which folded their bodies in half at the waist.
Reuters reported that Alsheikh was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera in Los Angeles, and it said the case involved abuse of prisoners at Adra Prison in Damascus.
In the courtroom, Judge Hernan D. Vera said the conduct was “unimaginably cruel,” before announcing the sentence, and Al Jazeera reported that a federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced Alsheikh on Thursday after the March guilty verdict.A
Appeal, Victims, and Officials
Defense attorneys said they will appeal the sentence, and Reuters said Alsheikh’s legal team had asked for a five-year sentence.
First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said the sentence “gives some semblance of healing and closure to this defendant’s victims,” while Reuters quoted a witness, Khaled Abdul Malek, saying the case showed that “even when justice is delayed, it will always come”.
Al Jazeera reported that Alsheikh’s son Rami Alsheikh told the court, “They did not, and still do not, make sense to us, given the man we know and love,” and it also said Alsheikh addressed the court through an interpreter that he was not an Assad loyalist and that he “only served as an employee.”A
The U.S. Department of Justice said prosecutors had asked for a minimum sentence of 80 years, while Al-Monitor reported that the defense urged a five-year term citing Alsheikh’s age and medical problems.
After Assad, Accountability Push
The sentencing comes as Syria’s post-Assad authorities pursue accountability for abuses, with Al-Monitor saying the case was prosecuted under the US Torture Act and that in August a Damascus court sentenced the ousted president and his army commander brother to death in absentia.
“prosecuted under the US Torture Act”
Reuters said Syrian rebels put an end to more than 50 years of rule by the Assad family in late 2024, and it described Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander, taking over after Assad’s ouster and working to improve ties with the West.
Al Jazeera reported that human rights groups and the United Nations have accused the Syrian government of widespread abuses in detention facilities, including torture and arbitrary detention of thousands of people, in many cases without informing their families, while Al-Monitor said the case centered on Alsheikh’s tenure as head of Adra Prison from about 2005 to 2008.A
In the U.S. proceedings, Judge Hernan D. Vera said a hearing to determine financial restitution would be scheduled in the coming months, and Al Jazeera reported that the judge recounted the “unimaginably cruel” details of Alsheikh’s abuse before announcing the 60-year term.A