A general view inside Sednaya Prison, where thousands of people were said to be detained and tortured by the Assad regime over the last decade, on December 13, 2024 in Damascus, Syria.
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The former head of a notorious Syrian prison was charged on Thursday (December 13, 2024) in the United States with torturing opponents of the now-collapsed government of Bashar al-Assad, the Justice Department said.

Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 72, who has been in the U.S. 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.”

The charges come days after Assad fled the country as his government crumbled, and as millions of Syrians begin a reckoning with decades of repression.

Alsheikh personally inflicted severe physical and mental pain on detainees, as well as ordering his staff to carry out such acts, US prosecutors said.

Under Alsheikh, prisoners were beaten while hung from the ceiling, or subjected to a device known as the “Flying Carpet,” which folded their bodies in half at the waist, causing excruciating pain and sometimes resulting in fractured spines.

“We are one step closer to holding him accountable for those heinous crimes. The United States will never be a safe haven for those who commit human rights abuses abroad,” said Eddy Wang, special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles field office.

Alsheikh faces three counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture. He was arrested in July at the Los Angeles airport on separate immigration fraud charges.

If convicted, he could be jailed for up to 20 years for each of the torture charges.

The Justice Department said Alsheikh held a variety of positions in the Syrian police and the Syrian state security apparatus.

He was also associated with the Syrian Ba’ath Party that ruled the country, and had been appointed governor of the province of Deir Ez-Zour by Assad in 2011.

He moved to the United States in 2020 and applied for citizenship in 2023.

A simmering civil war in Syria erupted late last month with a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies.

After racing through several major cities, the rebels quickly swept Damascus, sending Assad fleeing to Russia and bringing a sudden end to five decades of repressive rule by his clan.

Syrians have since flocked to prisons searching for missing loved ones.

Tens of thousands of people died of torture or as a result of the conditions of their detention in prisons under Assad’s rule since the civil war erupted in 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

People wave flags in celebration while standing on an old city wall after thousands of people participated in the first Friday prayer after performing the first Friday prayer since the fall of the Assad regime at the Umayyad Mosque on December 13, 2024 in Damascus, Syria.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday told Turkey it was “imperative” to work against a resurgence of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

The top U.S. diplomat also said he saw “encouraging signs” on reaching a ceasefire in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

His remarks came on the second leg of a whirlwind regional tour following Bashar al-Assad’s ouster in a lightning offensive spearheaded by Islamist-led HTS rebels, ending five decades of repressive rule by his clan.

He flew to Turkey on Thursday evening where he met for more than an hour with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Ankara airport, a US official said.

“Our country worked very hard and gave a lot over many years to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate of ISIS (IS), to ensure that threat doesn’t rear its head again,” Blinken said.

“And it’s imperative we keep at those efforts.”

In response, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Blinken Turkey was committed to ensuring stability in Syria “as soon as possible” and “preventing ISIS” jihadists from gaining a foothold there.

On Thursday, Erdogan assured Blinken Turkey would never ease up in the fight against IS in Syria, despite its operations against Kurdish fighters seen as key to containing the extremists.

“Turkey will never allow any weakness to arise in the fight against ISIS,” Erdogan said while vowing not to let up in its pursuit of groups Ankara sees as a threat to its national security.

Divisions over Kurdish-led SDF

As the Islamist-led rebels marched on Damascus, Turkey and its proxies began their own offensive against the Kurdish-led SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces).

Turkey sees the SDF as an extension of the banned PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) that has fought a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.

But Washington sees the force as a key ally for spearheading an offensive that defeated IS’s self-declared caliphate in Syria in 2019, with Blinken saying Thursday the SDF was “critical” to preventing a jihadist resurgence there.

The fighting between the two proxy forces has raised concern about the NATO allies’ competing interests in Syria.

Faik Bulut, an expert on the Kurdish question, told AFP Turkey was likely seeking “to take advantage of the vacuum to cleanse the region” of Kurdish fighters.

That way Erdogan could “be in a position of strength” during talks with incoming US president Donald Trump, he assessed.

With Turkey’s own powerful military, control over its Syrian proxy forces and influence over the HTS rebels that ousted Assad, Erdogan could likely tell Trump: “‘Hand this region to me and I will destroy ISIS. Give me responsibility and you’ll see’,” Balut said.

‘Encouraging signs’ of Gaza truce

Blinken also said he saw “encouraging signs” of progress toward a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, urging Turkey to use its influence to encourage Hamas to accept.

“We discussed Gaza, and we discussed I think the opportunity… to get a ceasefire in place. And what we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks are more encouraging signs that that is possible,” Blinken said.

Blinken, who leaves office next month following Trump’s election victory, began his tour in Jordan on Thursday on his 12th visit to the Middle East since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

“We talked about the imperative of Hamas saying ‘yes’ to the agreement that’s possible, to finally help bring this to an end,” he said.

“We appreciate very much the role Turkey can play in using its voice with Hamas to try to bring this to conclusion.”

Turkey has long had close ties with Hamas, viewing it as a national liberation movement rather than a proscribed terror organisation like most Western nations.

A blistering critic of Israel, Erdogan has frequently hosted Hamas’ political leaders who have used Istanbul as one of their foreign bases during his two-decade rule.