For months, Syrian prison guards brutally tortured an American aid worker and threatened to kill her loved ones. She eventually gave in to her demands, confessing to crimes she didn’t commit. She followed a trial that lasted no more than a few minutes and her execution was ordered at the end of 2016.
Human rights workers and politicians were outraged when the US government remained remarkably silent about the death of aid worker Layla Shweikani, 26. Her case has never received the same level of attention as that of other US citizens captured abroad, including Austin Tice, a freelance journalist covering the war in Syria who was kidnapped outside Damascus in 2012; Jason Rezaian, a correspondent for The Washington Post, who described being subjected to psychological abuse and sleep deprivation after his release from an Iranian prison in 2016; and Brittney Griner, a professional basketball star who was jailed for nearly a year in Russia.
But for five years, the Justice Department has been quietly investigating the Shweikani murder, led by the federal prosecutor in Chicago, according to four people with knowledge of the investigation. FBI agents traveled to Europe and the Middle East to collect large amounts of evidence and interview potential witnesses, including the man who may have buried Shweikani. Federal prosecutors convened a grand jury, which has been hearing evidence.
The previously unreported investigation aims to bring to justice senior Syrian officials considered key architects of a ruthless system of detention and torture that flourished under President Bashar al-Assad: Jamil Hassan, head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, when Shweikani disappeared, and Ali Mamlouk, then head of the Syrian National Security Office’s intelligence service.
A federal indictment charging the men with committing war crimes would be the first time the United States has criminally charged senior Syrian officials with the very human rights abuses that al-Assad has long denied using to silence dissent. Although the men are unlikely to be detained, a conviction would indicate that the United States intends to hold the Syrian government accountable. The United States has already imposed sanctions on al-Assad and his inner circle, including Mamlouk and Hassan, for abuses such as violence against civilians.
International efforts to bring top Syrian officials to justice for war crimes committed during more than a decade of conflict have been very limited. Few perpetrators have been prosecuted, raising the stakes for potential charges and straining diplomatic relations. A potential indictment “would personalize the evil of this regime and make it clear that you can’t do business with Assad,” said former ambassador James F. Jeffrey, the Trump administration’s special representative for Syria engagement.
Although it is widely acknowledged that the security forces under al-Assad have systematically sought to stamp out opposition to his authoritarian rule, he has slowly returned to the world stage. A few Arab countries, led by the United Arab Emirates, are trying to bring Syria back into the international fold. Critics have accused President Biden of tacitly changing the position held by previous administrations that no nation should engage with Syria, charges the White House has denied. And after a powerful earthquake devastated Syria in February, Western nations have worked more amicably with the al-Assad government to deliver aid.
