By Steve Neavling
The FBI and Justice Department have built a war crimes case against Syrian officials accused of leading a system of detention and torture to silence dissent, The New York Times reports.
FBI agents have traveled to Europe and the Middle East to interview potential witnesses and collect evidence.
The impetus for the investigation appears to be the killing of Layla Shweikani, a 26-year-old American aid worker who was executed after she confessed to crimes she didn’t commit while she was being brutally tortured and her loved ones threatened.
If federal prosecutors secure an indictment, it would be the first time the U.S. has criminally charged Syrian officials under President Bashar al-Assad, who has denied using detention and torture to silence critics.
The investigation is focused on Jamil Hassan, head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate when Shweikani disappeared, and Ali Mamlouk, the former head of Syria’s National Security Bureau intelligence service.
It’s unlikely that the men would be apprehended, but an indictment would still send a powerful message, activists say.
“No one should normalize relations with a regime that has killed an estimated 500,000 to a million people, including Americans and Europeans, and that continues to do so,” Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, an advocacy group, said.
