Obada Mzaik, detained and tortured in 2012 in a Syrian detention centre, seeks justice, accountability for the Syrian regime and reparations for himself and other torture victims.
At the request of the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), The Centre for Care and Victims of Abuse and Torture, Sira, has submitted an expert report to a federal court in Washington, D.C., in relation to a Syrian-American prisoner who was tortured in a Syrian prison. The report specifically analyses and details the psychological torture he was subjected to during his incarceration.
The lawsuit, which was filed on 12 April 2023, but not made public until now, was brought on behalf of Obada Mzaik, who was arrested and tortured in 2012 under the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. At the time, Mzaik was 22 years old, a university student, and had already been arrested for the first time in 2011, for allegedly participating in peaceful demonstrations that took place in the country against the government.
Although he was released after about a month in detention, a year later, during a checkpoint at Damascus International Airport after returning from a visit to the United States, Mzaik was arrested again. This time, he spent long hours being interrogated and suffered physical and psychological torture. for 23 days, before finally being released.
The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) reports that the Syrian regime has maintained a repressive strategy based on systematic detention, interrogation and torture, designed to suppress protests and silence the opposition. According to the organisation, more than 130,000 people have been victims of arbitrary detention or enforced disappearances, most of whom are presumed dead or remain incommunicado, without communication with their families or legal representation.
The lawsuit was filed under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a federal statute that allows victims to sue states designated as “sponsors of terrorism” for the torture of US citizens. The plaintiffs seek to prove that the torture suffered by Mzaik is part of a state policy supported by the Syrian government.
Psychological torture
The Sira Centre's expert report shows that various international and civil society organisations have documented that psychological torture is a method regularly used in detention centres run by the Syrian government. These practices include threats, humiliation, food deprivation, mock executions, threats directed at family members, extreme overcrowding or unsanitary conditions.
The expert witness reports having been repeatedly subjected to many of these psychological torture techniques, designed to create an environment of torture that destroys the identity, dignity and will of the detainees.