In a Los Angeles federal courtroom, a 74-year-old former Syrian prison commander was sentenced to 60 years for crimes he committed an ocean and two decades away — a rare instance of justice reaching across borders to hold accountable one of the many architects of Assad's machinery of suffering. Samir Ousman Alsheikh had run Adra Prison, overseen systematic torture, and then quietly sought a new life in America, nearly succeeding before the past caught up with him at an airport gate. His sentencing arrives as Syria itself struggles to emerge from the wreckage of a collapsed regime, where accoun
Former Assad Prison Chief Sentenced to 60 Years for Torture
Multiple torture victims suffered beatings while suspended from ceiling pipes for hours or days and were subjected to devices that folded their bodies in half; psychological trauma persists with survivors still hearing screams of fellow prisoners.