Former Syrian Official Convicted of Torture Under Assad Faces Sentencing in the US – WTOP News
Prosecutors say he ordered and joined torture at Adra prison, and victims described beatings and isolation cells as they seek a minimum 80-year term.
- A federal judge in Los Angeles is scheduled to sentence Samir Ousman Alsheikh today for torture committed while commanding Adra Prison from roughly 2005 to 2008.
- Jurors convicted Alsheikh in March of one count of conspiracy to commit torture and three counts of torture, while also finding him guilty of lying to U.S. immigration authorities and fraudulently obtaining citizenship.
- Prosecutors asked District Judge Hernan for a minimum 80-year sentence, citing victim Nidal Shikhani, who testified 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, noting Alsheikh is 74 with "significant medical and cognitive conditions" and willing to be deported to Syria.
- Separately, Syria's judiciary recently issued prison and death sentences for former officials involved in 2025 massacres, marking the first verdicts in the country's own accountability efforts against members of the ousted regime.
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Syria issues first verdicts over Alawite minority killings: One death, one life, and one 20 years’ jail
ALEPPO, Sept 17 — Syria’s judiciary issued its first verdicts on Thursday over last year’s killing of hundreds of members of the Alawite minority on the Syrian coast.The court sentenced a former member of government forces to 20 years in prison for murder, while two supporters of the deposed government received a death sentence and life in prison.Fourteen people were accused of involvement in the massacres, in a trial that opened last November. …
Former Syrian official convicted of torture under Assad faces sentenci
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
Syrian court issues first sentences over 2025 massacres of Alawites
Syria's judiciary on Thursday issued its first verdicts over the massacres of Alawites on the Syrian coast last year, sentencing a former member of government forces to 20 years in prison. A supporter of deposed president Bashar al-Assad received a death sentence and another was sentenced to life in jail.
On Thursday, 17 September, Syrian justice sentenced a military member of the government forces to 20 years in prison and two supporters of the government who had been sentenced to death or life imprisonment, in the first...
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