Two former high-ranking Syrian intelligence officers have been charged with war crimes for allegedly torturing Americans and other civilians who were considered enemies by the Syrian government and held in a military prison, the Justice Department stated on Monday (9 ).
U.S. prosecutors say officials from former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime oversaw the operations of detention facilities at Mezzeh Military Airport near Damascus.
There, the detainees were reportedly beaten, electrocuted, hung by their wrists, burned with acid and had their toenails removed.
The alleged crimes occurred during the civil war that has ravaged the country for more than a decade and culminated in the extraordinary fall of the Assad regime last weekend.
Who are the accused?
Former Syrian air force intelligence officers Jamil Hassan, 72, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, 65, “created an atmosphere of terror in Mezzeh Prison,” prosecutors alleged.
They were charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes through cruel and inhumane treatment, according to an unsealed indictment filed in federal court in Chicago.
Arrest warrants for them have been issued while the defendants are on the run, the Justice Department explained.
“The perpetrators of the Assad regime’s atrocities against American citizens and other civilians during the Syrian war must answer for their heinous crimes,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland exclaimed in a statement.
According to him, the Department of Justice “has a long memory, and we will never stop working to find and bring to justice those who tortured Americans.”
Crimes
The alleged torture took place between January 2012 and July 2019 against those the Assad regime called “enemies” — predominantly Syrian citizens, but also foreigners and people with dual nationality, including Americans, according to the accusation.
Hassan, the director of Syria’s intelligence agency who oversaw a network of detention facilities, and Mahmoud, who ran operations at Mezzeh prison, with “their co-conspirators, agreed to identify, intimidate, threaten, dissuade, punish, immobilizing and killing individuals the Syrian regime suspected of helping and supporting the regime’s armed opponents. Doing so through anti-government protests, provision of medical assistance and public criticism of Assad in the armed conflict between the president and the Syrian opposition,” the indictment said.
Who is the family of Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for more than half a century
The Justice Department reported that in addition to physical torture, detainees at the prison were forced “to listen to the screams of tortured prisoners and share cells with the corpses of other detainees, while guards threatened to kill and sexually assault their family members.” Inmates were also allegedly deprived of adequate food, water and medical care.”
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco exclaimed in a statement.
“For the second time in a year, the Department of Justice has brought charges against those who committed war crimes against U.S. citizens, implementing a previously unused federal law to hold accountable individuals who have engaged in cruel and inhumane atrocities during armed conflicts.”
Last year, four Russian soldiers were charged with war crimes against an American who was living in Ukraine during the invasion of Moscow.
Marking the first time the US government has used a decades-old law to prosecute those who commit war crimes against American citizens.
“Hassan and Mahmoud allegedly oversaw the systematic use of cruel and inhumane treatment of perceived enemies of the Syrian regime, including American citizens,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Wray said the intelligence service is “fully committed to working with our law enforcement partners around the world to ensure that these alleged war criminals are held accountable for their actions and that justice is served for the victims of these atrocities.”
Fall of Bashar al-Assad
On Sunday, after 13 years of civil war that fragmented the country, the Assad regime collapsed.
Rebel fighters declared Damascus “liberated” in a video speech on state television, prompting Assad to flee to Russia.
More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war and millions of people have been displaced, according to the United Nations.
For half a century, the Assad family has ruled Syria with an iron fist, with documented reports of mass torture, extrajudicial killings and atrocities against its own people.
Assad’s notorious detention facilities were black holes where anyone considered an opponent of the regime disappeared, with widespread reports of torture and inhumane conditions.
But as the rebels moved into Damascus, video showed prisoners being freed from the notorious facility.
This content was originally published in USA accuses former Assad officials for alleged torture of Americans and Syrians on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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