A man who was responsible for the notorious Adra prison in Syria has been arrested in the USA.
72-year-old Samir Ousman al-Shaikh was arrested at the international airport in Los Angeles last week, accused of lying on his visa application regarding whether he committed abuses in Syria. He has been living in Los Angeles since 2020.
According to the indictment, al-Shaikh falsely claimed that he had not committed, ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in extrajudicial executions, political killings or other violent acts.
This is the highest-ranking official from the Assad regime to be arrested anywhere in the world, says Mouaz Moustafa, head of the US-based organization Syrian Emergency Task Force, which supports the Syrian opposition.
Human rights groups and the UN have repeatedly accused the Syrian regime of widespread abuses in prisons, including torture and arbitrary detention. Thousands of Syrians who have disappeared are feared to have been detained and subsequently died.
