Sweden has reportedly awarded refugee status to a senior Syrian regime interrogator, known to have personally tortured dozens of Syrians dissidents to death in the regime's infamous 'Palestine Branch' prison in Damascus and supervised the torture of hundreds more.

First Assistant Ibrahim Haider (pictured) from Al-Salamiyah in Hama governorate is an interrogator in the Assad regime's infamous 'Palestine Branch', where he reportedly personally oversaw and participated in torturing hundreds of Syrians to death. According to survivors of the notorious torture centre, he used every kind of torture.

The Assad regime’s favoured torture methods include breaking prisoners’ spines, gouging their eyes out, extracting teeth and fingernails with pliers, and electrocuting or burning various parts of detainees’ bodies, including their genitals, with the Syrian Network for Human Rights describing 27 of these methods in detailed reports from accounts given by survivors.

Despite Ibrahim Haider’s high status within the regime hierarchy and the fact that neither he nor his family face any danger in Syria, he has now reportedly been awarded refugee status in Sweden under a provision allowing for family reunification with his wife who is already living in the Scandinavian nation.

Syrian activists have urged the widespread reporting of this case, with the regime believed to be once again sending loyalists abroad to spy on dissidents and intimidate them by threatening and often imprisoning their family members at home.