According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Alsheikh hid his prison work and denied harassing anyone in his visa and U.S. citizenship application.
U.S. officials say Alsheikh personally inflicted “extreme physical and mental pain and suffering on political and other prisoners” in his role under ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
He is alleged to have ordered inmates sent to the prison’s “punishment section” where they were beaten, hung from the ceiling and subjected to devices that caused “excruciating pain”, sometimes resulting in spinal fractures.
“Nearly 20 years ago, the defendant was accused of torturing prisoners in Syria, and today we are one step closer to holding him accountable for these horrific crimes,” said Eddie Wang, Special Agent in Charge of HSI’s Los Angeles Field Office. the statement said.
If convicted, Alsheikh faces up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit torture; up to 20 years on each of the three counts of torture; and up to 10 years on each of two counts of immigration fraud.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Alsheikh’s lawyer says he “categorically denies these politically motivated and false allegations.”
Court documents showed the 72-year-old moved to the US in 2020 and lived in Lexington, South Carolina.
It comes after rebel forces across Syria freed thousands of prisoners after the fall of the Assad regime.
The video showed dozens of detainees being freed, while other footage also showed people running to prisons in hopes of finding their missing loved ones.
Human rights groups and United Nations officials have previously accused the former Syrian government of mass prison abuses.
The British-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nearly 60,000 people had been tortured and killed in prisons run by Assad.
Syrian rebel forces said Thursday they plan to close notoriously brutal prisons and hunt down those involved in killings or torturing detainees.
