US Charges 2 Former Syrian Officials With War Crimes

People gather at Saadallah al-Jabiri Square to celebrate, after Syria's army command notified officers on Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad's rule has ended, in Aleppo, Syria, on Dec. 8, 2024. Karam al-Masri/Reuters

Two high-ranking Syrian officials who served under ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a Dec. 9 statement.

According to the indictment filed in the district court of Illinois on Nov. 18 and unsealed on Dec. 9, former Syrian Air Force intelligence officers Jamil Hassan, 72, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, 65, have been charged with war crimes. Arrest warrants have been issued but the pair are considered at large, with their current locations unknown.

Both face one count of conspiracy to commit war crimes through the “infliction of cruel and inhuman treatment” on detainees under their control, including U.S. citizens, allegedly in detention facilities at the Mezzeh Military Airport (Mezzeh Prison) near the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri, head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, said it is the second indictment brought under the U.S. War Crimes statute.

“The defendants are alleged to have committed atrocities against political dissidents, including U.S. citizens, opposing a brutal and now-deposed dictatorial regime,” Argentieri said. “War crimes such as the torture described in this indictment strike at the basic human rights that we all share.”

According to the indictment, Hassan was the director of Syrian Air Force Intelligence (SAFI) and in charge of a network of facilities, including Mezzeh Prison, where civilians perceived to be opponents of the Syrian regime were detained. Mahmoud was a brigadier general in SAFI and helped direct operations at the prison.

It’s alleged that between January 2012 and July 2019, Hassan and Mahmoud conspired to identify, intimidate, punish, and kill people detained at Mezzeh Prison who were suspected of aiding or supporting opponents of the Assad regime. Detainees were allegedly beaten, electrocuted, hung from the ceiling by their wrists, burned with acid, and subjected to other forms of torture.

They are also accused of depriving people of adequate food, water, and medical care, forcing detainees to listen to the screams of people being tortured, and forcing them to stay in cells with the bodies of dead prisoners.

If convicted, the pair could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

“Human rights abuses are among the most egregious crimes that the FBI investigates, and this historic indictment memorializes our commitment to accountability and justice,” the FBI Chicago Field Office’s Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta said in a Dec. 9 statement.

Syrian rebel groups, led by the terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took over the country on Dec. 8, marking the end of the Assad family regime, which had ruled Syria as a hereditary dictatorship since Hafez al-Assad assumed the presidency in 1971.

HTS has committed human rights abuses “including torture, forced disappearance, rape and other sexual violence, and killing in detention,” that the United Nations documented through 2020, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

“Having taken over government prisons and established additional jails, HTS has used sectarian motivated detention and related abduction and demands for ransom against members of minority groups,” the commission said.

HTS began as al-Nusra Front, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorist group founded by the late Osama bin Laden. The group was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 2018. Its leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who uses the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, is the subject of a $10 million bounty by the United States.

Chris Summers contributed to this report.