FBI builds case against Assad's henchmen after American citizen killing in Syrian dungeon

The FBI is building a file against leading Syrian regime figures over the alleged torture and killing of an American citizen in detention.

Aid worker Layla Shweikani, 26, was detained by the Syrian regime in 2016 along with other members of her relief group as well as her fiance and father.

She was then allegedly kept in harrowing conditions and subject to months of torture before she finally confessed to crimes her jailers put forward which she didn't commit, according to The New York Times.

The US Justice Department, with the help of the FBI, has been interviewing witnesses about Shweikani's fate with a grand jury convened by federal prosecutors to listen to the case.

They have already collected evidence showing that Shweikani was held in Syria's most notorious prisons - including Seydnaya and Mezzeh - before being tortured by guards and hanged.

The top secret case has been building momentum and aims to hold those who run Syria's archipelago of dungeons to account, and as a result, bring some justice for Shweikani's death.

These include the Syrian dictator himself, Bashar Al-Assad, Ali Mamlouk, the head of the National Security Bureau intelligence service, and Jamil Hassan, who ran the torture centre where Shweikani disappeared. This would be a first, as the US has never criminally charged Syrian regime officials for human rights abuses before.

Although it is unlikely that the action would lead to Assad regime officials being apprehended, it would "personalise the evil of this regime and make it clear you can’t do business with Assad", former Ambassador James F. Jeffrey told The New York Times.

Syria has detained up to 130,000 people since the outbreak of pro-democracy protests in 2011 were brutally crushed. Tens of thousands of these detainees are thought to have died, by hanging, torture, and ill-treatment.

The US move comes as Arab countries, including Gulf allies, push toward normalisation with the Assad regime. This includes Saudi Arabia, who recently sent its foreign minister to Damascus.