13 Apr 2023; MEMO: A lawsuit has been filed against Syria in a US court over "widespread and systematic torture in its detention centres", in the latest legal attempt from abroad against the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad and its officials.
The California-based human rights organisation, the Centre for Justice and Accountability (CJA), revealed yesterday that it co-filed the suit at a Washington DC court on behalf of Obada Mzaik, a Syrian-American national who was arrested while visiting his family in Syria in 2012.
Having been detained by Syrian Air Force Intelligence, Mzaik was subjected to torture and forced to sign a false confession which stated that he was involved in activities against the Assad regime. He was then transferred to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate Central Branch at the Mezzeh Military Airport.
There he was detained for over three weeks, during which he was beaten, forced to fit in a small cell with other detainees, and tortured until confessing to even more alleged anti-regime activities. His family was eventually able to secure his release by bribing a high-ranking Syrian security official – a common method which many organisations and activists say amounts to extortion and kidnapping for ransom.
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CJA filed the lawsuit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which enables American citizens to sue states that are listed by the US as sponsors of terrorism and commit acts such as torture, extra-judicial killing and hostage-taking.
As the lawsuit is a civil case against the Syrian regime, it would not result in the imprisonment of Syrian officials. Aside from targeting compensatory and punitive damages to Mzaik, the suit reportedly also aims to indict the regime's policy of systematic torture and arbitrary detainment.
"I am filing this lawsuit in the name of all the many Syrians who were tortured in detention centres, but don't have the opportunity to obtain justice," Mzaik stated in a press release.
Lee Rovinescu, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhause Deringer, LLP, which co-filed the lawsuit, clarified that "US courts have broad jurisdiction against state sponsors of torture, and we expect to prove that our client's torture was carried out as part of a state-sanctioned policy and practice by Syria".
