WASHINGTON — As Syria’s neighbors slowly mend fences with a government they’ve long shunned for its brutality, a Syrian-American man detained and allegedly tortured more than a decade ago by the regime’s security apparatus is suing to hold it accountable. 

At the time of his arrest in January 2012, Obada Mzaik was a 22-year-old college student who had just arrived from Michigan to visit with his Syrian relatives and finish his studies. Mzaik, who was born in Ohio and raised in Syria, fled the country seven months earlier as the government escalated its crackdown on the peaceful revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. 

Mzaik was immediately detained upon landing in the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. Much of his detention was spent at the Air Force Intelligence Directorate’s notorious central branch at the Mezzeh Military Airport, which houses Assad’s presidential plane. 

The federal lawsuit alleges prison officials beat, whipped and threatened Mzaik with electrocution in order to obtain a false confession and punish him for his perceived anti-regime activities. The 24-page complaint says Mzaik was forced to watch the torture of other detainees, including one of his relatives.