A federal court in Los Angeles has sentenced Samir Ousman Alsheikh, a former senior Syrian government official, to 60 years in prison for torturing political prisoners during his time as head of Adra Prison — a notorious detention facility on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria's capital. Judge Hernan D. Vera delivered the sentence on Thursday, describing the conduct as "heinous, unimaginably cruel, and almost unspeakably violent and brutal." The case marks the first time an Assad-era official has stood trial in the United States, and legal experts say he is the highest-ranking member of Bashar al-Assad's regime to be convicted in person by any foreign court.
Alsheikh, now 74, ran Adra Prison from approximately 2005 to 2008, overseeing an underground punishment wing — known as "Wing 13" — where regime opponents were interrogated and tortured. During a nine-day trial in March, three survivors testified in harrowing detail. They described being cuffed by their wrists to ceiling pipes and beaten with cables, left suspended for hours or days. Others recounted being strapped to a hinged wooden device known as the "magic carpet" or "flying carpet," which guards forced shut to cause extreme pain. One victim testified that Alsheikh himself stomped on the device with his foot. A separate victim, forced to wear a red jumpsuit assigned to prisoners marked for execution, said he believed he would be killed. "I still hear the screams of others begging for mercy," wrote one survivor, Nidal Shikhani, in a statement submitted to the court. Another, Sultan Abdul Malek, described suffering panic attacks and chronic anxiety two decades on.
Alsheikh arrived in the United States in 2020 and obtained a green card, concealing his past on immigration forms. He was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024 after a Syrian opposition organisation in the US passed a tip to federal authorities. He was ultimately convicted of conspiracy to commit torture, three counts of torture, immigration fraud, and making false statements. Prosecutors had sought a minimum sentence of 80 years, while his defence team requested just five years, citing his age, poor health, and willingness to be deported to Syria. His lawyers announced they intend to appeal the conviction. Alsheikh is only the fifth person to be prosecuted under the US extraterritorial Torture Act, which permits charges over acts of torture committed abroad by individuals physically present in the country.
The case carries broad significance for accountability efforts surrounding Syria's civil war, which lasted nearly 14 years, killed an estimated half a million people, and displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million. Al-Assad was ousted by a rebel offensive in December 2024. Syria's new government has since held a number of in absentia trials for former regime officials; al-Assad and his brother Maher were sentenced to death in August 2025 by a Syrian court, though both men remain in Moscow. "Human rights violators who come to the United States will receive no safe harbor here," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva. An attorney representing several victims called the sentence a signal that justice remains possible — and urged Syria's transitional authorities to continue their own accountability processes.