The former official, Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, is accused of falsely describing whether he persecuted anyone for their political beliefs or had been involved in any killings.
A former Syrian military official who ran one of the country’s most notorious prisons and is accused of torturing and killing political dissidents has been arrested in California, according to a court filing.
Federal law enforcement agents detained the former official, Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, 72, just before he was scheduled to depart last Wednesday on a one-way flight to Beirut, Lebanon, which shares a border with Syria, according to court papers. Federal investigators requested that a judge approve an arrest warrant a day earlier.
Mr. al-Sheikh, a permanent resident of Los Angeles since 2020, is accused of attempted naturalization fraud in his effort to seek U.S. citizenship, according to a criminal complaint filed last week. According to the complaint, Mr. al-Sheikh, who ran Syria’s infamous Adra prison and was a former police commander, intelligence officer and brigadier general, falsely described whether he persecuted anyone for their political beliefs or had been involved in any killings.
The case is continuing and investigators are considering additional charges, according to court papers.
A Justice Department spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Andrew Tabler, who served as the director for Syria on the National Security Council under President Donald J. Trump and later as a senior adviser to the U.S. special envoy for Syria, compared the arrest to the Nazis seeking haven abroad.
“Adra prison is one of the crown jewels of the Assad regime’s gulags,” Mr. Tabler said. “The fact that someone who was in charge of this torture chamber made it into the United States is on par with Nazi commanders living comfortably in Latin America after World War II.”
The charges against Mr. al-Sheikh reflect a long-running effort by American officials to hold the Syrian government accountable for its use of detainment and torture.
The Justice Department is investigating the 2016 death of an American aid worker, Layla Shweikani, as a war crime carried out by Syrian intelligence officials. Officials recently notified the family of an American therapist, Majd Kamalmaz, that he died in captivity. And the government is still investigating the disappearance of Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who was abducted outside Damascus in 2012 while covering the Syrian civil war.
Investigators believe that Mr. al-Sheikh has close ties to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whose authoritarian government uses kidnappings and violence to quell dissent.
From 2005 to 2008, Mr. al-Sheikh ran Adra prison, a complex on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, which holds political dissidents, protesters and other civilians accused of crimes.
Former prisoners describe being starved, beaten, tortured and raped at Adra, where many have awaited trial for years or died.
Five former detainees told U.S. investigators that Mr. al-Sheikh oversaw their mistreatment and torture, according to an affidavit filed by an investigator at the Department of Homeland Security.
Mr. al-Sheikh walked the prison with his aides, approving executions and watching as inmates were hanged in a part of the facility known as “execution square,” the prisoners recounted.
One said that under Mr. al-Sheikh’s authority, guards broke his back and stomped on him, according to the affidavit. A former Syrian politician recalled how Mr. al-Sheikh ordered his fellow inmates at Adra to kill him so his death would fly under the radar. The former politician said that an inmate who helped him was beaten with electric cables in Mr. al-Sheikh’s office.
Another prisoner told investigators that guards stripped inmates naked, beating them to unconsciousness and dragging them down stairs.
After the Syrian civil war began in 2011, Mr. al-Assad appointed Mr. al-Sheikh governor of Deir Ez-Zour Province, where citizens staged some of the largest demonstrations against Mr. Assad, according to the affidavit.
Under Mr. al-Sheikh, the military conducted violent crackdowns in response.
“His appointment was not arbitrary,” Amjad Al Sary, a Syrian activist who documents war crimes, said in an interview. “He was willing to kill, maim and terrorize people, and Assad knew only he would be able to stop the protests.”
Zyad al-Kadhem, who worked in the province’s department of agriculture under Mr. al-Sheikh, recalled his brutality.
As governor, Mr. al-Sheikh “fired on protesters and disappeared countless thousands of civilians,” Mr. al-Kadhem told The New York Times.
Mr. al-Kadhem shared evidence with American investigators, including an order from Mr. al-Sheikh informing any government worker who appeared at a protest or missed days from work that they would be questioned by intelligence agents. He said that he was set to be executed, arrested and tortured until his family intervened.
“My family paid all of their life savings so that my fate would not be the same as countless other men, women and children who were arrested and killed by al-Sheikh’s orders,” Mr. al-Kadhem said.
Two years after the crackdowns began in Deir Ez-Zour, Mr. al-Sheikh’s wife became a naturalized U.S. citizen. In 2017, she filed papers for her husband to join her in Los Angeles and he began the process of obtaining an immigrant visa.
Mr. al-Sheikh lied on his application, according to the affidavit, “falsely stating that he had not committed, ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in extrajudicial killings, political killings or other acts of violence.” The affidavit also said that Mr. al-Sheikh lied during his interview for an immigrant visa.
Mr. al-Sheikh flew to Los Angeles on a green card in March 2020, where he began applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Mr. al-Sheikh is accused of making seven materially false statements on the application, according to the affidavit. He said that he never persecuted anyone for their political beliefs, never was involved in any killings, had never tried to hurt another person, had never worked in a prison or jail, and never worked with any group that used weapons against others. The government also accused him of providing false documentation and information.
Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, an advocacy group, said his organization became aware a few years ago that Mr. al-Sheikh was hiding in plain sight in Los Angeles.
Mr. Moustafa notified law enforcement, providing documentation and potential witnesses that tied Mr. al-Sheikh to atrocities carried out by the Syrian government
