Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 72, of Lexington, South Carolina, was reportedly the pinnacle of the Damascus Central Jail — colloquially often called Adra Jail — between 2005 and 2008.
Whereas he was main the jail, Alsheikh allegedly ordered his subordinates to ship “extreme bodily and psychological ache and struggling on political and different prisoners,” in accordance with a DOJ assertion. Courtroom paperwork allege that Alsheikh himself additionally participated in torture classes.
The jail reportedly had a “punishment wing” the place prisoners have been despatched to be overwhelmed whereas they have been dangled from the ceiling. Prisoners have been additionally reportedly subjected to a tool colloquially known as the “Flying Carpet” which folded their our bodies in half, inflicting excruciating ache and generally spinal fractures.
“Samir Alsheikh is charged with torturing political dissidents and different prisoners to discourage opposition to the regime of then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” mentioned Principal Deputy Assistant Legal professional Normal Nicole Argentieri, head of the Justice Division’s Legal Division. “Alsheikh later allegedly lied about his crimes to acquire a U.S. inexperienced card.”
The “victims of such violent therapy proceed to endure lengthy after the bodily acts of torture have ceased,” Argenteiri added. “The Justice Division is dedicated to prosecuting perpetrators of such crimes and won’t permit them, by means of lies and concealment, to cover in the USA.”
A blood-stained rope lies on the ground within the notorious Saydnaya army jail, simply north of Damascus, Syria, early this week. Crowds gathered to enter the jail, often called the “human slaughterhouse,” after 1000’s of inmates have been launched following the rebels’ overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. (Copyright 2024 The Related Press. All proper reserved)
US Legal professional Martin Estrada mentioned the “grave human rights abuses” within the indictment have been “chilling.”
“Our nation is not going to be a secure harbor for these accused of committing atrocities overseas,” he mentioned.
Alsheikh held a number of positions within the Syrain police and state safety forces, and later as the pinnacle of a regional authorities. In 2011, now-ousted Syrian chief Bashar al-Assad appointed him the pinnacle of the Deir Ez-Zour province. Immigration paperwork report that Alsheikh immigrated to the US in 2020, and utilized for his US citizenship in 2023.
“With regards to pursuing our felony investigations, Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) has a protracted attain and a fair longer reminiscence,” mentioned Particular Agent in Cost Eddy Wang of the HSI Los Angeles Area workplace.
“The defendant is accused of torturing prisoners in Syria virtually 20 years in the past, and as we speak, we’re one step nearer to holding him accountable for these heinous crimes. The US won’t ever be a secure haven for individuals who commit human rights abuses overseas,” he added.
Alsheikh had alreay been charged with visa fraud and, tried naturalization fraud costs previous to the indictment. The indictment provides three counts of torture, and one rely of conspiracy to commit torture to his costs.
The previous jail chief faces as much as 20 years in jail for the conspiracy to commit torture costs, and a most penalty of 20 years in jail for every of the three torture costs. He may obtain a most of 10 years in jail for his immigration fraud costs.
The indictment follows Assad’s regime collapsed following an offensive led by opposition forces which have been battling for management of Syria since 2011.
Following the autumn of Assad , political prisoners inside his regime’s prisons have been launched en masse, revealing proof of surprising and disturbing human rights abuses inside.
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Within the Sednaya jail, referred to by rights teams as a “human slaughterhouse”, hundreds of individuals are believed to have been detained, tortured or executed throughout Syria’s civil struggle which started in 2011. Sitting simply north of Damascus, it grew to become the main focus for a whole lot of households demanding solutions about what occurred to their kinfolk.
It comes as Israel, US and Turkey additionally launched airstrikes in opposition to websites throughout the nation to guard their pursuits after rebels, led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) pressured Assad to flee, whereas the deposed Syrian president’s former backers Russia and Iran additionally suggesting they’d attain out to the rebels – with Moscow cautious of the destiny of its navy bases within the nation.
On the jail, numerous households had been trawling darkish corridors and hidden cells within the labyrinthine complicated for a hint of family members detained for attending protests, defying authorities or just voicing discontent.
Ahmed Najjar had come to Damascus from Aleppo, hoping to seek out his brother’s two kids, seized by Assad’s safety forces in 2012. “We’re trying. They’re saying there’s an underground jail,” he stated.
Within the wake of hundreds spilling out of the jail having been freed on Sunday rumours had unfold that that hundreds extra inmates had been nonetheless imprisoned in underground cells that would not be reached. The White Helmets rescue organisation, which for years has dug via fallen buildings after air strikes, deployed a workforce however on Monday afternoon they stated that they had but to discover a signal of such cells. A number of occasions, a breakthrough revealed a hidden hallway, prompting bursts of gunfire from rebels to alert the hundreds ready. Cries would go up from the gang, similar to “My son, I am coming, I am coming” or “God, please do not disappoint me”.
A person breaks the lock of a cell in Saydnaya jail (AP)
The scenes round Sednaya had been an indication of the difficulties the nation must choosing itself up after a long time of rule by the Assad household, whereas the remainder of the world tries to rapidly work out the way to take care of the Islamist-led rebels that now management the capital, with fears of an influence vacuum in a area that’s already going through struggle in Gaza and a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon. Israel, concerned in these conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, has seized management of a beforehand demilitarised buffer zone in Syrian-controlled territory within the Golan Heights and attacked what it stated had been Assad regime weapons depots with airstrikes.
Gideon Saar, the Israeli international minister, stated the strikes had been to cease arms falling into the palms of these would search to hurt Israel. “That’s why we attacked strategic weapons techniques, for instance, remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets in order that they won’t fall within the palms of extremists,” he stated. The US has struck targets related to Isis in central Syria, whereas Turkey has focused Washington-backed Kurdish forces.
The UK’s international secretary, David Lammy, known as Assad – who the Kremlin stated has been given asylum in Russia – a “monster” with “the blood of numerous innocents on his palms” and that his defeat was additionally a “humiliation” for Moscow and Tehran.
“Assad is the rat of Damascus, fleeing to Moscow along with his tail between his legs. How becoming he ought to find yourself there,” Mr Lammy stated.
However Mr Lammy stated that the downfall of Assad brings “no assure of peace” and nations have been cautious about HTS and its chief often called Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who now desires to make use of his formal identify Ahmad al-Sharaa, on condition that HTS started as an offshoot of al-Qaeda. HTS minimize ties with the jihadists years in the past and has sought to undertaking a extra average picture. Mr Lammy stated that HTS remains to be a proscribed terrorists organisation within the UK and the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, stated no determination on eradicating HTS from that record is pending “in any respect… it’s far too early”.
Folks collect as Syrian White Helmets civil defence members and consultants seek for potential hidden basements on the Saydnaya jail (AFP through Getty Photographs)
Mr Lammy stated: “We’ll decide HTS by their actions, monitoring intently how they and different events to this battle deal with all civilians in areas they management”. The international secretary added that the group has “supplied assurances” to minorities in Syria to this point and dedicated to co-operate with the worldwide neighborhood on monitoring chemical weapons.
On Monday, the gathering of insurgent teams led by HTS introduced that they may grant amnesty to all these conscripted into Assad’s military, whereas insurgent command additionally urged they’d not inform girls the way to costume. “It’s strictly forbidden to intrude with girls’s costume or impose any request associated to their clothes or look, together with requests for modesty,” the command stated. in an announcement.
Assad’s prime minister, Mohammed Jalali, informed Al Arabiya TV he had agreed at hand energy to the rebels, qith Al Jazeera tv reported the transitional authority can be headed by Mohamed al-Bashir.
Worldwide leaders have stated it’s a second of hope for Syria and this was mirrored on the bottom. Fares Wati, in Idlib, northwestern Syria, stated: “As Syrians, at the present time is a historic turning level for us. Throughout your entire nation, in cities and villages alike, Syria is experiencing an amazing pleasure it hasn’t identified for many years. At the moment, the Syrian individuals have freed themselves from the grip of Assad’s rule, which for therefore lengthy turned the nation into his private fiefdom.”
He added: “These historic moments restore hope to the Syrian individuals and open a brand new chapter of dignity and freedom. The enjoyment we witness in the present day is a testomony to the resilience and dedication of the Syrian individuals, who by no means misplaced hope for a greater future.”
Folks dance as they have a good time the overthrow of Syrian President al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria (EPA)
Ibrahim Olabi, a local of Aleppo who has household there and is on the board of the Syrian British Consortium, stated that the worldwide neighborhood now must step up: “We’d like some involvement and assist for Syrians to rebuild their nation”.
Syrians in neighbouring nations similar to Turkey, the place thousands and thousands fled the civil struggle, have been lining up on the border to return. Turkey is opening its Yayladagi border gate to handle the secure and voluntary return of Syrian migrants it hosts, President Tayyip Erdogan stated on Monday.
The UK additionally introduced it had paused choices on asylum functions from Syrians. 1000’s of Syrians have been granted asylum within the UK, however the House Workplace stated choices on functions would now be paused whereas occasions unfold in Damascus. The UK adopted international locations together with Germany, Austria and Sweden in suspending choices on Syrian instances. Syrians generated the fifth largest quantity of asylum claims to the UK within the 12 months ending September 2024, House Workplace statistics confirmed – behind Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Bangladesh.
House Secretary Yvette Cooper stated: “We all know the scenario in Syria is shifting extraordinarily quick after the autumn of the Assad regime. We’ve seen some individuals returning to Syria. We even have a really fast-moving scenario that we have to intently monitor.
“And that’s the reason like Germany, like France and like different international locations, we now have paused asylum choices on instances from Syria whereas the House Workplace evaluations and displays the present scenario.”
Further reporting by Abdalghany al-Aryan in Aleppo
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As a former official in Afghanistan’s democratically elected authorities, Mustafa* knew that if the Nato-backed administration collapsed he must flee. However like many others he was unable to take action, and in July final yr fell into Taliban fingers. They threw him inside a small cage with canine inside.
“They captured me, suffocated me by inserting a plastic bag on my face and tied my limbs collectively,” he tells The Impartial over a telephone name from Afghanistan. The Taliban accused him of continuous to collaborate with the hardline Islamist authorities’s enemies even after the autumn of Kabul in August 2021 – of their minds, being a insurgent.
When he was lastly taken out of the cage after 30 hours, Mustafa was unable to face and collapsed to the bottom. Over the following 17 months, the Taliban’s jail guards and officers assaulted him with sticks and pipes, he says, and fed him scraps.
He’s certainly one of 38 interviewees in a brand new physique of analysis by Afghanistan Worldwide, a TV station run by journalists protecting the nation from exile. They search to doc allegations of systemic torture and abuse meted out by the Taliban to detainees, and have offered their findings to the UN particular rapporteur for Afghanistan, Richard Bennett.
The Taliban denies the allegations and claims journalists are welcome to go to its jail amenities to see situations for themselves, although the Islamist regime has additionally banned media from airing criticism of its insurance policies – a part of what the Committee to Defend Journalists (CPJ) calls “draconian media restrictions… dragging Afghanistan again to the Stone Age”.
Taliban members are seen from a window as they examine inside a jail cell at Pul-e-Charkhi jail, positioned on the outskirts of Kabul (AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
In all, Mustafa and the opposite 37 interviewed detainees present oral proof of no less than 31 several types of torture, usually below cowl of darkness and generally lasting as much as 18 hours a day.
Mustafa breaks down as he remembers the situations he was saved in. “You might not lie down inside that cage, and after I pleaded, they hit the cage with sticks and rifle butts, silencing me,” he says. “At that time, I believed – am I, are different Afghans, useless to the world? Do they not see how the Taliban got here and stomped throughout our rights?”
The sorts of torture described within the testimonies shared with The Impartial embody waterboarding, electrical shocks on non-public components, bodily assault with sticks, immersion in scorching water, nail extraction and suffocation with a bag.
One other interviewee, Farishta*, was accused of offering help to members of an Afghan resistance motion. She says she was crushed for over per week at a Taliban-held intelligence facility in Kabul, by interrogators making an attempt to get details about resistance fighters. On the sixth night time she says she was delivered to a room the place wires have been hooked up to her toes and she or he was shocked with electrical energy till she misplaced consciousness.
The Taliban launched her from jail after 41 days, citing an absence of proof to detain her. She says the bodily trauma of the ordeal disrupted her menstrual cycle.
A Taliban jail safety guard stands subsequent to a poster ordering girls to cowl themselves with a Hijab through the distribution of latest uniforms’ ceremony by the Taliban authorities at a jail in Jalalabad (Getty Photographs)
The crimes the interviewees are alleged to have dedicated differ, however many revolve round public criticism of the Taliban administration. At the least 16 detainees, together with six girls, have been accused by the Taliban of inciting revolt and mobilising folks in opposition to the group by utilizing social media, taking part in conferences and discussions, talking to media shops, and spreading anti-Taliban propaganda. They have been arrested throughout Afghanistan, together with in Kabul.
The Impartial can’t independently corroborate all their claims, however has seen images purporting to point out accidents inflicted on the prisoners throughout their alleged torture. A number of images additionally confirmed shoddily stitched-up wounds on the our bodies of detainees.
Hamidullah*, who the Taliban accused of “inciting revolt” in opposition to the brand new regime by organising protests, spent a month in detention. One night time, he says, interrogators walked him to a room, ordered him to be stripped bare and hooked up weights to his non-public components. He was ordered to face for all the night time throughout this ordeal.
Hamidullah has visited the urologist 3 times after being free of detention, however has not felt in a position to share any particulars of the horror he suffered together with his spouse and kids.
Mowlavi Abdullah, the performing director for prisons administration (2L) inspects as newly recruited Taliban jail guards stand in formation throughout their commencement ceremony at Pul-e-Charkhi jail (Getty Photographs)
Sayed Jamal, a Kabul resident arrested in Might this yr, instructed Afghanistan Worldwide he was accused of being concerned in an explosion carried out by a resistance group referred to as the Afghanistan Freedom Entrance (AFF). “They instructed me ‘You killed our Mujahids, now we’re doing the suitable factor by simply eradicating your nails’,” he says. He was launched in July, and has now fled Afghanistan.
The dates, location and names haven’t been disclosed over fears of reprisal expressed by the previous detainees who’re nonetheless below the Taliban’s surveillance and concern rearrest.
Afghan journalists are additionally amongst these interviewed. In Kandahar, Ashraf* says he was detained and instructed by the Taliban that they’d reduce off his tongue if he didn’t cease talking out within the media. Some detainees say they have been abused on the premise of their alleged connections to international media shops, together with Afghanistan Worldwide itself.
In an announcement to The Impartial, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid stated there was “no type of torture within the prisons of the Islamic Emirate”, and claimed unspecified “international intelligence” organisations have been influencing former detainees in order that they “misread what they noticed in jail and supply false data”.
