US Citizen Wins $50m Lawsuit Against Assad

Sudan Events – Sumaya Sayed

An American citizen has won a $50 million lawsuit against Syria’s regime of Bashar al-Assad over his abduction, imprisonment, and torture, almost eight years after he was released from detention.
41-year-old Kevin Dawes, an American freelance journalist, was detained by forces loyal to the Assad regime after he crossed over into northern Syria from Turkiye in 2012 and was then transferred to a Syrian military intelligence branch in Damascus. There he was kept in a windowless cell and subjected to repeated torture; a practice commonly conducted by regime authorities throughout its vast prison network.
He was finally released in 2016 through the mediation of Russia, one of the Syrian regime’s main allies. According to the judge ruling on the case, the four-year ordeal left Dawes with permanent nerve damage and other physical ailments, all of which continue to cause him “profound and lasting agony”.