Inside the Mzaik v. Syria Trial #1: Survivor’s Recollections of State-Sponsored Torture
MZAIK v. SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
United States District Court – District of Columbia – Washington, DC
Trial Monitoring Summary #01
Hearing Dates: August 7, 2025
CAUTION: Some testimony may include graphic descriptions of torture, rape or other violent acts.
Note that this summary is not a verbatim transcript of the trial; it is merely an unofficial summary of the proceedings.
Throughout this summary, [information located in brackets are notes from our trial monitor] and “information placed in quotes are statements made by the witness, judges or counsel.” The names and identifying information of witnesses have been redacted.
[Note: SJAC provides a summary of the proceedings while redacting certain details to protect witness privacy and to preserve the integrity of the trial. In the present case, the Plaintiff and all witnesses consented to the publication of the information provided in the report.]
SJAC’s trial monitoring report covers the trial brought by Obada Mzaik against the Syrian Arab Republic in Washington, DC. The Plaintiff, Mr. Mzaik was represented by the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and Freshfields US LLP, while the Syrian Arab Republic failed to appear. Mr. Mzaik is a dual Syrian-American citizen who was detained in the Mazzeh Military Airport in Damascus in 2012, where he was physically and psychologically tortured. The torture Mr. Mzaik experienced is part of a documented pattern of torture the Assad government engaged in, and Mr. Mzaik brought this case forward based on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to both create a historical record and set a precedent for future accountability efforts.
Throughout the day, the Court heard testimony from the Plaintiff about the physical and psychological torture he experienced at the Air Force Intelligence Branch at the Mazzeh Military airport. The Plaintiff’s testimony was followed by supporting testimony from four additional witnesses: one psychiatrist who had assessed the client’s claims of torture and three survivors who had also been tortured, both at the Air Force Intelligence Branch at Mazzeh Military airport and at several other detention centers in Syria.
Day 1 – August 7, 2025
[The Plaintiff, Syrian-American individual Obada Mzaik, brought forth a civil suit against the state of Syria under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) for the detention and torture he had to endure in 2012. The FSIA provides for exceptions to the immunity of foreign state agents when the violations amount to state-led terrorism. The trial is a civil suit allowing for claiming damages for the harm instead of establishing individual criminal responsibility. In today’s hearing, the Plaintiff and witnesses recounted the torture they had experienced at the hands of Syrian state agents. For more information, see the SJAC’s press release and the Q&A by the Center for Justice and Accountability.]
The session commenced with the Plaintiff’s motion to preadmit five exhibits [in which exhibits are admitted as evidence before being formally presented during the trial]: a State Department Human Rights Report; a press release from the Treasury Department; three UN reports produced by the UN Commission of Inquiry; a report produced by the International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism; and excerpts of the Plaintiff's passport. The Judge admitted all exhibits, although she noted that the first exhibit may contain double hearsay. The Plaintiff’s Counsel then sought judicial notice of certain facts [to declare them as true without formally presenting evidence]. The Judge took judicial notice that Syria was considered a state sponsor of terrorism by the US and that Jamil Hassan [the former head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate of Syria, which oversaw Mazzeh Military Airport detention center] was on the US sanctions list in 2012. The Judge declined to take judicial notice that the Syrian Air Force Intelligence was an arm of the state, and the Plaintiff’s Counsel indicated it will submit evidence regarding this fact.
The Plaintiff’s Counsel then gave an opening statement, explaining that Mr. Obada Mzaik was a Syrian-American who was detained and tortured at the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Branch twice, with the case focusing primarily on the torture he endured in 2012 at Mazzeh Military Airport. The Plaintiff, who was aged 21 years old at the time, experienced physical and psychological torture during his detention. The Plaintiff’s Counsel highlighted that Mr. Obada Mzaik's experience was part of a pattern of detention and torture that emerged over decades of a brutal detention system, which expanded during the Arab Spring. The Plaintiff’s Counsel stated that the Plaintiff’s testimony would be supported by three witnesses, also tortured in the Mazzeh Military Airport detention center, in order to prove this pattern.
The Plaintiff’s Counsel then explained that the Court had personal and subject matter jurisdiction and that the case met the four requirements outlined under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, as defined by the Torture Victims Protection Act: the foreign state is designated in the US as a State Sponsor of Terror; the Plaintiff was a US national at the time of the act; the Plaintiff gave the Defendant a reasonable opportunity to arbitrate; and there is an avenue for liability. As such, the Plaintiff’s Counsel asked the Court to find judgment that Syria was responsible for the Plaintiff’s torture, aiming to ensure that the Syrian people will not suffer from the same crimes even under the current government.
The Plaintiff was then sworn in and questioned by his Counsel. Mr. Mzaik testified that he has been a US citizen his whole life. He was born in Ohio in 1990 and moved to Syria when he was four years old. He currently lives in Ohio. In Syria, Mr. Mzaik was detained for the first time in Damascus University in late June of 2011.
Before his detention, Mr. Mzaik had been watching a protest from a distance when security forces began to beat protestors. The Plaintiff recalled watching someone hit another individual on his head with a metal rod. The Plaintiff cried while recalling this memory. Mr. Mzaik became involved when a student, who was physically restrained, asked Mr. Mzaik to help release him. After the Plaintiff helped freeing the student, security forces attacked him with wooden and plastic rods, taking him to a detention center housed within Branch 215 [a military intelligence branch] for 35 days. During this time, the Plaintiff recalled, he and the other detainees were hit or slapped each day, he was chained to the other detainees and held in a room with 60 other people.
After his release, Mr. Mzaik left for the US upon discovering the Political Branch had begun asking about him [Note: Intelligence Services in Syria were divided into four departments/directorates. One of them was the Political Security Branch or Political Security Directorate. It was under the administration of the Ministry of Interior.]. In the US, the Plaintiff became involved with “Syrian Freedom Messages رسائل الحرية السورية,” a group designed to send supportive messages to Syrians to protest peacefully. The Plaintiff noted that he used a nickname to conceal his identity, with only three people knowing his real name.
After four months, on January 3, 2012, Mr. Mzaik explained that he returned to Syria for two reasons: to see his family and to finish the one semester he had left before graduating. Before returning to Syria, Mr. Mzaik's family checked whether he was wanted by the government, and the Plaintiff himself checked in Jordan as well. Despite these checks, the Plaintiff was ultimately detained upon arrival at Damascus airport. He handed the border guards his US passport but was subsequently asked for his Syrian ID. Upon presenting it, he was immediately detained, during which his belongings were taken and his laptop searched. The Plaintiff recalled that while searching the laptop, the officers found a picture from his first detention. He was kept at the airport for one day until he was taken to the Criminal Security Branch [like the Political Security, this Branch was under the administration of the Ministry of Interior and involved in arresting demonstrators during the uprising] in the morning, where he was interrogated again until the night.
At night, the Plaintiff was again transferred, this time with six other detainees in the Criminal Political Branch [Branch name as heard during the trial]. During the transfer, the Plaintiff was handcuffed, blindfolded, and beaten if he moved outside of a proscribed position. At the Criminal Political Branch, the Head of the Interrogation Office Adnan Harriri interrogated the Plaintiff, asking him about his involvement with “Syrian Freedom Messages.” The Plaintiff was interrogated every day, twice a day, in the morning and evening. Each interrogation lasted two hours. The Plaintiff recalled that the room was only 1.0 meter by 2.5 meters, filthy, and without light. On one occasion, the Plaintiff was taken to another room, where he encountered Adnan Harriri again and saw a naked detainee.
On the sixth day, the Plaintiff was told his interrogation was complete and that he would be transferred to the Air Force Intelligence Branch. As the suffering that took place there was well known among Syrians, the Plaintiff tried to convince himself he was not being taken to the Air Force Intelligence Branch.
The Plaintiff recalled that upon arrival at the Air Force Intelligence Branch in the Mazzeh Military Airport, the Plaintiff was blindfolded, handcuffed, and questioned as to why he was arrested. The Plaintiff responded that he had been previously detained. An officer then choked him, raising his body to the wall. The Plaintiff remarked that he had thought he would die.
The Plaintiff described the physical and psychological torture he endured at the Air Force Intelligence Branch through repeated interrogations. Physically, the Plaintiff was kicked, stripped naked, searched, and beaten. In one instance, two soldiers who were wearing military clothes, though the clothes did not have a military rank, said this was a “new boy to play with,” and the Plaintiff recalled that this was a “scary moment” for him as he realized they were part of the regime. The Plaintiff also explained, “Every day and night, I can hear the interrogation and how they punish other detainees” and that “I can’t see what is happening outside my room, but I can hear.” In one example, the Plaintiff believed he heard a child being tortured, calling out for his uncle and family.
In another interrogation session, the Plaintiff remembered, he was put in the same room with his cousin. In the interrogation room, the interrogators informed him that his cousin had stated the Plaintiff attended a protest. To prevent trouble for his cousin, the Plaintiff admitted to it. Mr. Mzaik recalled that this turned out to be a trap. The guards had told his cousin the same thing: that the Plaintiff had said his cousin attended a protest. The interrogators then employed a torture method known as “Shabeh,” where they handcuff the individual and have him stand on his toes for one, two, or more hours with their hands raised [note: Shabeh is a common torture method in Syria, which was imposed in variations.]. The interrogators put the Plaintiff’s cousin in this position in front of the Plaintiff, with the cousin’s hands behind his back and raised.
The Plaintiff recalled being confined to a cell 1.0 by 2.5 meters large with a small window alongside five to six other detainees. The blanket had lice and insects, and the Plaintiff contracted lice on his legs and back. The Plaintiff only had 30 seconds to use the bathroom, or he would be subjected to “Falaqa فلقة,” a position in which he was made to lie on the floor, raise his legs, and be hit with a green PVC pipe until his legs and feet were hot. As a result, he could not stand for days. There was no medical care, no prayer allowed, and minimal food and water provided.
The Plaintiff’s family was able to secure his release on January 25, 2012. Upon his release, the Plaintiff discovered that he had hepatitis. He explained in court that he continues to suffer effects from his torture today, and his cousin remains disappeared.
After the Judge asked the Plaintiff several questions regarding his personal life, the expert witness, Dr. Pau Perez-Sales, Director for the Syria Network Foundation of Torture in Madrid, was sworn in and began his testimony. He testified that he prepared a report for this case following a two-hour video conference with the Plaintiff. The expert described the impact on the Plaintiff with the concept of “psychological torture,” and how it was used in Syria. According to the expert, in Syria, psychological torture was utilized in conjunction with physical torture in order to break a person’s identity, cause extreme mental and emotional distress, and loss of self. Dr. Perez-Sales explained that psychological torture causes victims to never be able “to see the world the same way again,” and that they may “forget the pain but never forget the guilt and humiliation.”
Dr. Perez-Sales also described the “torturing environment,” which he defined as how every element of daily life is used to torture a person. He described how the prisons in Syria created a “torturing environment.”
Dr. Perez-Sales said that after concluding his assessment of the Plaintiff, he found that there was a high consistency between the Plaintiff’s account of his treatment and evidence of physical and psychological torture. He affirmed that the Plaintiff was subjected to torture and all the elements of a “torturing environment” were met, including both physical torture (i.e. beatings) and psychological torture (i.e. sensory deprivations, denial of the right to practice one’s religion, denial of medical treatment, threats of sexual assault, among others). He added that in the short-term, the Plaintiff had complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although as time passed, he showed resilience Dr. Perez-Sales added that the Plaintiff had lost his belief in the goodness of others and the ability to trust others. After having assessed the Plaintiff for depression, Dr. Perez-Sales concluded that Mr. Mzaik showed a “loss of ability to enjoy life.” He also had high anxiety symptoms.
After Dr. Perez-Sales was dismissed, Ms. Yaman Al Qadri, a clinical psychologist, was called to testify as a survivor witness via Zoom. Ms. Al Qadri spoke about her past and how she became involved in the revolutionary movement in Syria, specifically at her university in Damascus where she was studying medicine. She described the nonviolent act of protest that led to her arrest—the throwing of flyers with anti-government slogans across her university campus. Ms. Al Qadri recounted how she was detained from November 3 to November 26, 2011, for a total of 23 days. She was 18 years old at the time of her detention.
Ms. Qadri further recalled that after she threw the flyers off the balcony with a group of other students, she left campus. She then learned from members of the National Student Union [university students who collaborated with the Syrian government to track, torture, and detain students they believed to be engaging in anti-regime protests] were searching for the students behind the action. One of her friends who partook in the action, Ammar, was detained. Ms. Qadri remembered receiving a call from his phone number, which she answered when she was at her cousin’s house. Ammar seemed anxious and acted as if someone was around him. He asked Ms. Qadri whether she could meet to talk, at which point her cousin’s father hung up the phone, took the SIM card, and told her to leave Damascus.
Facing a lot of pressure to return to normal, Ms. Al Qadri returned to campus, where she was ultimately detained at the guard post at the entrance to her university campus. She was then threatened and beaten by a fourth-year medical student who was part of the National Student Union and two women who worked in the university administration. She was forced to sit without crying or speaking loudly to not attract attention from other students. She waited for one hour until she was placed in a civilian car that brought her to a second location; the men in the car transferring her were armed. Ms. Al Qadri recalled that she did not know her whereabouts and was forced to sign a paper. She was then interrogated, during which she was tased across her body and threatened with sexual assault. Later, through further interrogations and conversations, Ms. Al Qadri realized she was in Harasta Air Force Intelligence Branch.
She testified that she was then brought to a third location, Mazzeh Military Airport detention center, where she was held for the remainder of her detention. She was held in between two interrogation rooms and reported being able to hear detainees being tortured and threatened each night. She also remembered being interrogated and tortured multiple times at Mazzeh as well. She added that the guards also brought her friend, involved in the same flyer incident, and forced him to claim that he had participated out of his love for her.
Ms. Al Qadri reported that news of her detention had an extremely negative impact on her family and that when her mother heard the news, she attempted to throw herself out of a moving car. Ms. Al Qadri testified that her case received attention because it was not common to detain women for such a long time at this time. Her colleagues had created a Facebook page, and she believed the nature of her interrogation changed because of media pressure. She reported meeting with Aslan Mahmood [name unclear] two or three times and that these interrogations took more of a curious tone, with the interrogators inquiring about her role as an activist.
Ms. Al Qadri ended her testimony by explaining she wanted to contribute to documenting the Assad government’s crimes and that what gave her hope while detained in Mazzeh was believing places like Mazzeh would one day be empty and become museums. Ms. Al Qadri noted, however, that abuses have been taking place over the last seven to eight months, and that the journey to the rule of law is long.
The Judge asked Ms. Al Qadri several questions, including if she regretted the incident with the flyers, to which she responded no. The Judge also asked Ms. Al Qadri if the Judge could include her name and story in her opinion, which Ms. Al Qadri confirmed. Ms. Al Qadri also added that she had forgotten to emphasize the impact of her detention on her family, and that it affected her parents very strongly. Before concluding her testimony, she noted that as she was forced to leave Syria for her own safety because, following her detention, she lost her family, friends, educational direction, and home.
The next witness, Mr. Mahmoud Hamoud, was then sworn in via Zoom and began his testimony. Also a survivor of torture, Mr. Hamoud focused on his experiences being detained in Syria for over seven years. He recalled briefly leaving Syria for less than 3 months in 2012 because his city was bombed, but returning on October 14, 2012, to resume his studies. At the border, a border guard asked where he was from, and upon hearing his answer, Mr. Hamoud was immediately arrested. Mr. Hamoud recalled that when individuals from his city passed through checkpoints, they were arrested because they had rebelled against the Assad government.
Mr. Hamoud then recounted that he was taken to the Air Force Intelligence location in Suwayda from October 15, 2012 to October 18, 2012, before being transferred to the Mazzeh Air Force Intelligence Branch, where he was detained for 25 months. He remembered that he was 17 years old at the time, and was never allowed to contact his family or a lawyer during his detention.
Mr. Hamoud described the Mazzeh prison layout, as well as his prison conditions. He reported that the cells were so overcrowded that there was no place to lay down to sleep and they were only permitted to use the restroom twice a day. He added that there was no heating in the winter, leading to extremely cold temperatures. He recalled that he wrote “Don’t be sad 😊” in English on the wall, in an attempt to search “for help in the darkness” and “hoping one day to come back free.” He testified that he was interrogated for three months and tortured countless times, including being hit with a green plastic tube while laying out in the snow in his underwear, and was subjected to electrocution and “Shabeh.” He further described how he was forced to falsely confess to crimes he had not committed under threat of torture, that the youngest prisoners were taken by guards to clean corridors and organize food to give to the other detainees, and that he heard women behind doors.
Mr. Hamoud then recalled that on November 18, 2014, he was transferred to a military court, then to Sednaya prison, where he was confined from November 18, 2014, until April 3, 2015. He reported seeing detainees die every day while he was held in Sednaya. He was then transferred to Al Baloni prison in Homs, where he was able to contact his family for the first time. Following a transfer to a civilian prison in Damascus, staying for 3.5 more years, he was released on November 3, 2019. In total, he was detained for over seven years.
Regarding the impact on his family, Mr. Hamoud explained that it was clear his family thought he had died. Upon his release, he stayed one month in Syria before escaping to Lebanon and then France.
Following this testimony, the Plaintiff’s Counsel gave two propositions to the Judge. First, Counsel provided references showing that the Air Force Intelligence was a branch of the government, citing a report describing Jamil Hassan’s role as the Head of the Air Force Intelligence [for the in absentia trial against Jamil Hassan, Ali Mamlouk, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud in France, see SJAC’s trial reports in the Dabbagh Case]. The Plaintiff’s Counsel also cited trial exhibit 4, a report produced by the UN Commission of Inquiry named “Web of Agony,” which analyses the Air Force Intelligence and its responsibilities of intelligence gathering in depth, arguing that its role was embedded into the state.
The final witness, Marzen Darwish, also a survivor of torture, was then sworn in via Zoom. Mr. Darwish identified himself as the Director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), which he established in 2004. He said that SCM is a nonprofit focusing on human rights, and that he has been advocating for change and democracy in Syria, particularly since 2011, with the beginning of the Syrian revolution.
Mr. Darwish testified that on February 16, 2012, he was in his office with a colleague when the door was opened and soldiers took about fifteen of his colleagues, including his wife, to the Air Force Intelligence Branch of the Mazzeh Military Airport, where the men were separated from the women. Mr. Darwish recalled being interrogated, tortured, and threatened for 64 days at Mazzeh Military Airport. He described experiencing Shabeh, as well as being beaten at night in the snow naked. He also recounted how he was forced to sleep in the hallway, handcuffed and blindfolded, near the toilet. He reported being only allowed to use the restroom twice a day. He recalled that he could hear others being tortured and that this “itself is a kind of torture.” He added that the cells were extremely overcrowded, and skin illnesses proliferated. He said that he was never allowed to contact his family or speak to a lawyer.
Mr. Darwish testified that he was later transferred to the 4th Division [a military unit] prison, which he described as being exclusively for torturing prisoners. He, along with all of the other detainees, was tortured twice a day, including being beaten with electric sticks. He was there for six months, then transferred to the Headquarters of the Air Force Intelligence in Tahrir Square. He was held there and tortured for two months until he was sent back to Mazzeh Military Airport. He recalled that he was then sent to Al-Qaboun Military Prison, then released from detention on August 10, 2015.
Subsequently, Mr. Darwish described the physical impact of the imprisonment on his body: He lost over 60 kilograms, has many scars, and lost five of his toenails. On the emotional level, he continued, he had problems sleeping, could not look people in the eye, and did not feel comfortable meeting people.
At this point in the testimony, the Zoom link stopped working, and the witness continued his testimony via phone call, where he described how he was able to leave for Beirut, Berlin, and finally to Paris, where he currently resides and works on justice and accountability for Syria. The Judge thanked the witness and dismissed him.
The Judge then reminded the Plaintiff’s Counsel that the Plaintiff had not proposed damages in the initial suit. The Plaintiff’s Counsel suggested they could give an amount now or do so in proposed findings. The Judge accepted the latter option, before closing today’s hearing.
The hearing concluded at approximately 5:15pm EST. The Judge affirmed that the transcript would be finished shortly, followed by her full opinion.
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[Note: On August 8, 2025, one day after the hearing, the Judge handed down the judgment, finding that Syria’s Assad regime was responsible for the torture of the Plaintiff, Obada Mzaik. The reasoning and the determination of damages will be issued separately. SJAC will report on the details.]
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