Yesterday, Monday, April 17, the "New York Times" revealed that the US Department of Justice conducted an unannounced investigation, over the past five years, into the torture and execution of the American aid worker, Leila Shwicki, in a Syrian regime prison.
The newspaper noted that over the course of several months, the 26-year-old American aid worker, Shwicki, was brutally tortured in a Syrian prison, and threatened to kill her loved ones. In the end she acceded to their demands and confessed to crimes she did not commit. After that, there was a trial that lasted no more than a few minutes, and at the end of 2016, an order was issued for her execution.
The investigation, which was conducted in secret, was led by the Chicago attorney general, according to four people familiar with the investigation.
The paper noted that FBI agents have traveled to Europe and the Middle East to gather evidence and interview potential witnesses, including the man who may have buried Shukani. Federal prosecutors have also subpoenaed a grand jury to hear the evidence.
According to the "New York Times", the investigation was aimed at filing an indictment against the head of intelligence of the regime at the time, Major General Jamil Hassan, and the head of the regime's National Security Intelligence Service, Major General Ali Mamlok.
The newspaper described Hassan and Mamluk as Syrian officials considered to be the main architects of the regime of arrests and torture that spread during the reign of the current Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, at the time of Shawkani's disappearance.
According to the newspaper, the federal indictment would be the first time the US has brought criminal charges against senior Syrian officials for human rights violations, the same violations Assad has denied using to silence the opposition.
The newspaper noted that the two men are not expected to be arrested, but the conviction indicates that the United States places the responsibility on the regime's government.