A 72-year-old man who was scheduled to fly out of Los Angeles last Wednesday was arrested and accused of lying about his role at the helm of one of Syria's most notorious prisons in a bid to gain US citizenship. Samir Ousman al-Sheikh has been a permanent resident of Los Angeles since 2020 and is accused of attempted naturalization fraud—specifically, giving multiple false answers when asked whether he persecuted anyone for their political beliefs or a role in any killings. Al-Sheikh ran Syria's Adra prison and served as a police commander, intelligence officer, and brigadier general.
He had been scheduled to take a one-way flight to Beirut, Lebanon, at the time of his arrest. The New York Times speaks with Syria expert Andrew Tabler, who framed the arrest thusly: "Adra prison is one of the crown jewels of the Assad regime's gulags. 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."
Former prisoners kept at Adra say they were beaten, starved, and tortured. The New York Times shares what two former inmates told US investigators, per court documents: In one case, that a guard broke his back with al-Sheikh's authority. In the other, the inmate alleged al-Sheikh told other inmates to kill him so his death would go less noticed; he said an inmate who came to his aid was beaten with electric cables in al-Sheikh's office. Al-Sheikh's wife first became a naturalized US citizen and then applied for her husband to join her in LA; he arrived in the city on a green card in March 2020 and started the naturalized US citizen application process. (More Syria stories.)
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