A former Syrian military official who ran one of the country’s most infamous prisons under President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has been arrested in the United States, authorities announced on Wednesday.
Federal agents with the US Department of Homeland Security took 72-year-old Samir Ousman al-Sheikh into custody at Los Angeles International Airport last week, an agency spokesperson confirmed.
Human rights organizations say that al-Sheik oversaw widespread abuses, including torture and arbitrary detention while serving as warden of Adra Prison from 2005 to 2008.
The former military official is currently being charged with immigration fraud, according to a criminal complaint filed on July 9, but prosecutors are weighing additional charges as well.
The document alleges he lied on his visa application about having never “persecuted (either directly or indirectly) any person because of race, religion, national origin, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” and “never been involved in killing or trying to kill someone.”
Al-Sheik has lived in Los Angeles since 2020, but authorities were first alerted to his identity in 2022 by the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a US-based opposition organization.
The organization’s executive director, Mouaz Moustafa, called al-Sheik “the highest-level Assad regime official arrested anywhere in the world” and confirmed that his team has been working closely with law enforcement on the issue since being tipped off about a “war criminal” living in the US by a Syrian refugee.
Al-Sheik’s lawyer, Peter Hardin, has called the immigration charges the result of a “simple misunderstanding” and said that his client “vigorously denies” all accusations of human rights abuses.
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