In a Los Angeles federal courtroom, a chapter of Syria's long nightmare found rare legal closure when a judge sentenced Samir Ousman al-Sheikh — former commander of Damascus's Adra prison — to 60 years for torture and immigration fraud. The conviction is the most consequential ever handed down by a foreign court against an official of Bashar al-Assad's regime, and only the fifth prosecution in American history under the extraterritorial Torture Act. It is a reminder that impunity, however patient, is not the same as permanence — and that the law can follow a man across an ocean and two decades
US court sentences ex-Syrian prison chief to 60 years for torture
Multiple torture victims suffered severe physical and psychological trauma, including chronic pain, anxiety, panic attacks, and lasting psychological scars two decades after imprisonment.