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Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The Justice Department has announced war crime charges against two top Syrian officials just days after the fall of their government, accusing them of abusing civilians detained during the country's civil war. The indictment -- filed Nov. 18 but unsealed Monday -- charges Syrian Air Force Intelligence officers Jamil Hassan, 72, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, 65, over their roles at a detention facility Mezzeh Military Airport, near the Syrian capital of Damascus.
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According to federal prosecutors, the pair were part of the Syrian regime's effort to "terrify, intimidate and repress any opposition" during the Syrian Civil War, which erupted in 2011 following then-President Bashar al-Assad crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
"The perpetrators of the Assad regime's atrocities against American citizens and other civilians during the Syrian civil war must answer for their heinous crimes," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The indictment stems from Hassan's position as Air Force Intelligence director, overseeing a network of detention facilities, including the Mezzeh Prison, where Mahmoud directed operations.
At the Mezzeh Prison, the men are accused of committing war crimes against civilians, including Americans, from at least January 2012 to July 2019.
The men are accused of conspiring "to identify, intimidate, threaten, deter, punish, immobilize and kill" those the regime suspected of aiding and supporting rebels seeking to overthrow the Assad dictatorship.
Among the alleged abuses at Mezzeh Prison, prisoners were subjected to beatings with cables, sticks and pipes and whippings with hoses. Prisoners were kicked, punched, stripped naked and electrocuted.
The indictment also states victims had their toenails forcibly removed and were burned with cigarettes, hot liquids and acid.
Victims were threatened with death and were told their family members were being sexually assaulted. The document further alleges that family members were also detained and threatened with arrest to coerce victims into making false confessions.
Victims were exposed to the screams and cries of other detainees, sights of prisoners tied and hanging from their wrists, blood-stained walls and dead bodies in their cells.
The indictment accuses the men of subjecting their victims to mental and physical abuse to create "an atmosphere of terror" at Mezzeh Prison.
Hassan and Mahmoud, who remain at large, have each been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit the war crime of cruel and inhuman treatment. If convicted, they each face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The charges were unsealed just days after the decades-long Assad regime was ousted by a fast-moving insurgency. On Sunday, Russian state-media reported that Assad had fled to Russia where he and his family were provided asylum.
"The Assad regime may have fallen, but our commitment to accountability continues unabated," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.
The announcement comes months after a Paris Criminal Court in May sentenced Hassan, Mahmoud and one other Syrian official to life sentences for committing war crimes against two French Syrians -- Patrick and Mazzen Dabbagh -- at Mezzeh Prison.
Deaths certificates were issued for the two in July 2018, stating Patrick Dabbagh had died in January 2014 and Mazzen Dabbagh in November 2017.
