United States of America v. Samir Ousman Alsheik

Los Angeles, California criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendant charged with fraud and misuse of visas in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1546, conspiracy to commit torture in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2340,, and attempted unlawful procurement of naturalization in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1425.

Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 74, formerly of Lexington, South Carolina, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit torture, three counts of torture, one count of fraud in possession and use of an immigration document, and one count of attempted naturalization fraud. Alsheikh has been in federal custody since July 2024.

Alsheikh was a brigadier general in charge of Damascus Central Prison, commonly known as Adra Prison, from approximately 2005 through 2008, under the regime of then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Alsheikh inflicted and ordered subordinates to inflict severe physical and mental pain and suffering on prisoners.

Alsheikh ordered certain prisoners to be sent to a section of the prison known as Wing 13, where they were held in tiny isolation cells and tortured. Victims who refused to harm or kill political dissidents imprisoned with them or who otherwise showed support for those dissidents testified at trial that they witnessed and suffered various forms of torture.

For example, guards used manacles to suspend prisoners by their wrists from pipes on the ceiling for extended periods of time and beat them with fists or cables. One victim testified that he felt like his limbs would be torn from his body when they suspended him for days.

Witnesses also testified that they were placed on a torture device known as the “Flying Carpet” or “Magic Carpet,” which consisted of two large wooden panels with hinges in the middle. Guards strapped the victims to the device on their backs, positioning their waists at the hinges, and then forcing the lower panel together with the upper, folding the upper and lower halves of the victims’ bodies together and causing excruciating pain and serious injury.

One victim recalled that Alsheikh himself stomped on the Flying Carpet with his foot while the victim was restrained in the device. One victim testified that as part of his punishment for writing a letter of support to a political prisoner, he was subjected to the Flying Carpet and then forced to wear a red jumpsuit solely assigned to those designated for execution. He testified that he thought he was going to die. Witnesses also testified to being folded into a car tire, restrained, and beaten by guards.

Alsheikh personally ordered these and other horrific acts of torture and brutality against the three named victims in the indictment. Following his time at Adra Prison, Alsheikh was appointed governor of the Syrian province of Deir Ez-Zour in 2011. In 2018, he applied for a visa to enter the U.S. and became a Lawful Permanent Resident. While completing his visa application, he concealed the acts of torture and violence he committed at Adra prison. Alsheikh entered the United States in 2020 and continued to lie about and conceal his past conduct in his 2023 application to become a United States citizen.

The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to 60 years in prison.