US sentences ex-head of Syrian prison to 60 years on torture charges

The former head of a notorious Syrian prison has been sentenced by a US federal judge to 60 years in prison for torture and immigration fraud, according to the Department of Justice.

Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 74, who has been in the US since 2020, allegedly ran Damascus Central Prison — known colloquially as Adra Prison — from approximately 2005 to 2008, where detainees were subjected to horrific abuse in the “Punishment Wing.”

A jury found Alsheikh guilty in March of “one count of conspiracy to commit torture, three counts of torture, one count of visa fraud, and one count of attempted naturalization fraud,” the DOJ says.

Three former prisoners testified during the trial about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Alsheikh, as well as the torture inflicted on other prisoners.

“The conviction in this case is a testament to the courage of his victims,” Assistant US Attorney General A. Tysen Duva says in a statement.

In addition to the torture charges, Alsheikh has been found guilty of immigration fraud after he lied about his past to gain entry to the United States in 2020.

“The message is clear: human rights violators who come to the United States will receive no safe harbor here,” Duva adds.

“We will find them, and they will be prosecuted and punished for their heinous crimes.”

A coalition spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government in late 2024, and after the collapse, Syrians flocked to prisons searching for missing loved ones.