The former head of a notorious Syrian prison was charged Thursday in the United States with torturing opponents of the now-collapsed government of Bashar al-Assad, the Justice Department said.

Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 72, who has been in the US since 2020, allegedly ran Damascus Central Prison – known colloquially as Adra Prison – from approximately 2005 to 2008, where detainees were subjected to horrific abuse in the “Punishment Wing.” The charges come days after Assad fled the country as his government crumbled, and as millions of Syrians begin a reckoning with decades of repression.

Alsheikh personally inflicted severe physical and mental pain on detainees, as well as ordering his staff to carry out such acts, US prosecutors said. Under Alsheikh, prisoners were beaten while hung from the ceiling, or subjected to a device known as the “Flying Carpet,” which folded their bodies in half at the waist, causing excruciating pain and sometimes resulting in fractured spines.

“We are one step closer to holding him accountable for those heinous crimes. The United States will never be a safe haven for those who commit human rights abuses abroad,” said Eddy Wang, special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles field office.

Alsheikh faces three counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture. He was arrested in July at the Los Angeles airport on separate immigration fraud charges. If convicted, he could be jailed for up to 20 years for each of the torture charges.