Syrian Official Accused of Overseeing Torture, Killing Arrested in US

Facts

• US authorities arrested Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, a former Syrian official, in Los Angeles on Tuesday regarding allegations that he oversaw the torture and killing of political dissidents at the country's Adra prison just outside Damascus.¹
• Al-Sheikh was reportedly in charge of the prison from 2005 to 2008. Human rights groups and the UN have accused the Syrian government of abuses in its detention facilities, including widespread torture and arbitrary detention of thousands of people.²
• He was charged with immigration fraud, as he denied on his US visa and citizenship applications that he had ever persecuted anyone in Syria, with investigators considering additional charges.³
• US authorities were tipped off regarding al-Sheikh's alleged human rights abuses in 2022 by the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a US-based Syrian opposition organization. SETF worked with several federal agencies to build a case against al-Sheikh.⁴
• The 72-year-old al-Sheikh became a permanent resident in the US in 2020 and was arrested as he was preparing to travel to Lebanon, which borders Syria.⁵
• The US supported elements of the Syrian opposition during Syria's civil war, which began in 2011, and has placed sanctions on the Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad.⁶

Sources: ¹New York Times, ²Guardian, ³Voice of America, ⁴Associated Press, ⁵Aa and ⁶State.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by SETF. The arrest of Al-Sheikh is a significant victory for the Syrian people, who have suffered ruthless abuse at the hands of the Assad regime. In addition to the crimes he committed at Adra prison, al-Sheikh also participated in the regime's crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, including the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of Syrians.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Salon. This arrest is nothing more than hypocritical moral posturing as the US prosecutes its adversaries while simultaneously turning a blind eye to not only the crimes committed by its allies — such as Israel's and Saudi Arabia's — but also its own: From the atrocities at Abu-Ghraib prison to those committed at Guantanamo Bay, the US is no stranger to the use of torture. But in Washington's eyes, torture only constitutes torture when it's committed by its enemies.