US indictment accuses two Syrian officials of torture at notorious prison

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER The Associated Press

A woman examines the cells at the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. Crowds are gathering to enter the prison, known as the "human slaughterhouse," after thousands of inmates were released following the rebels' overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Sunday. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Hussein Malla]

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. prosecutors are accusing two senior Syrian officials of overseeing a notorious prison that tortured peaceful protesters and other political prisoners, including a 26-year-old American woman who was later believed to have been executed.

The indictment was unsealed Monday, two days after a shock rebel offensive overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad. The U.S., U.N. and others accuse him of widespread human rights abuses in a 13-year battle to crush opposition forces seeking his removal from power.

The war, which began as a largely nonviolent popular uprising in 2011, has killed half a million people.

The indictment, filed Nov. 18 in federal court in Chicago, is believed to be the U.S. government’s first against what officials say were networks of Assad intelligence services and military branches and other allied groups that detained, tortured and killed thousands of perceived enemies.

It names Jamil Hassan, director of the Syrian air force’s intelligence branch, who prosecutors say oversaw a prison and torture center at the Mezzeh air force base in the capital, Damascus, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, who prosecutors say ran the prison.

People inspect documents they found in the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. Crowds are gathering to enter the prison, known as the "human slaughterhouse," after thousands of inmates were released following the rebels' overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Sunday. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Hussein Malla

The indictment charges the two with conspiring to commit cruel and inhuman treatment of civilian detainees during the course of the Syrian civil war. Detainees at the prison were whipped, kicked, electrocuted, burned and subjected to other mental and physical abuse, including being housed in cells alongside corpses of dead detainees, prosecutors allege.

Victims included Syrians, Americans and dual citizens, the indictment said. The U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force has long pushed federal prosecutors for action on the cases, including that of 26-year-old American aid worker Layla Shweikani.

The group presented witnesses who testified of Shweikani’s 2016 torture at the prison. Syrian rights groups believe she was later executed at the Saydnaya military prison in the Damascus suburbs.

“Now it is our time to capture these criminals and bring them to the United States for trial,” the Syrian Emergency Task Force said in a statement Monday. The group’s leader, Mouaz Moustafa, said his relatives were among those tortured at the prison.

Federal prosecutors said they had issued arrest warrants for the two officials, who remain at large.

Prospects of bringing them to trial were unclear. Assad’s toppling by the rebels over the weekend has scattered his government and left citizens searching prison torture centers around the country for survivors and evidence.