Former Syrian Prison Official Sentenced for Torture and Immigration Fraud

LOS ANGELES - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services assisted with the case that led to the sentencing of Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 74, a former Syrian prison warden and provincial governor. Alsheikhm was sentenced to 60 years in prison for torturing prisoners and lying to U.S. immigration officials to gain entry to the United States. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced the sentencing.

A jury found Alsheikh guilty in March 2026 of one count of conspiracy to commit torture, three counts of torture, one count of visa fraud, and one count of attempted naturalization fraud. Evidence presented during the trial showed that Alsheikh ordered and participated in the torture of prisoners while he was the head of Adra Prison, also known as Damascus Central Prison, outside of Damascus, Syria, from approximately 2005 to 2008. He committed human rights atrocities in Syria, including to silence political dissent, and lied about his past to gain entry to the United States in 2020.

Three of Alsheikh's victims testified at trial about being tortured and also seeing and hearing the torture of other prisoners. The victims were fastened to a device, known as the "Flying Carpet," that forcibly folded their bodies in half at the waist, manacled to the ceiling and suspended for days or hours, savagely beaten while immobilized inside tires, and packed into tiny, filthy, cold, wet cells that were infested with insects and other vermin.

According to evidence presented at trial, when two prisoners refused Alsheikh's orders to harm political prisoners who were also housed at Adra Prison, and after a third prisoner's letter of support to a political prisoner was intercepted by prison guards, Alsheikh ordered the prisoners to be sent to an underground section of the prison known as Wing 13, where they were held in tiny cells and tortured.

Evidence presented during the trial also established that Alsheikh lied to U.S. immigration authorities about his background to obtain a Green Card and on an application to naturalize as a U.S. citizen. Alsheikh entered the United States in 2020 and has been in custody since his arrest in July 2024.

Trial Attorney Patrick Jasperse of the Criminal Division's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua O. Mausner for the Central District of California prosecuted the case, with assistance from HRSP Historian/Analyst Philip Hoffman and the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI. Significant support was provided by the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center in Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI's International Human Rights Unit, and USCIS.

Established in 2009, the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center furthers the government's efforts to identify, locate, and prosecute human rights abusers in the United States, including those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, female genital mutilation, and the use or recruitment of child soldiers.

Members of the public who have information about former human rights violators in the United States are urged to contact U.S. law enforcement through the ICE tip line at 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also email [email protected] or complete the online tip form at ice.gov/webform/ice-tip-form.

To report suspected immigration benefit fraud or abuse to USCIS, please use the USCIS Tip Form.

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