On April 17, a Riverside County judge sentenced Mazen Aliwi Alawi to 52 years and eight months in state prison after a jury convicted him of a long list of sexual and physical offenses against three children in his care. The punishment follows a February jury trial that found him guilty on multiple felony counts. Prosecutors say the victims were siblings who were under 12 when the abuse began after they arrived in the United States.
Sentence and convictions
On Feb. 19, 2026, jurors found Alawi guilty of 18 felony counts, including nine counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 by force, one additional lewd-acts count, three counts of criminal threats, three counts of child abuse, one count of witness intimidation and one count of assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. The DA said the judge imposed a total term of 52 years and eight months in state prison on April 17. Prosecutors described the convictions as the culmination of evidence at trial showing years of abusive conduct.
Abuse timeline and victims
Prosecutors say the abuse started when the three siblings, two boys and a girl, arrived in the U.S. in 2016 at about 9 or 10 years old and continued through 2019, with only the girl sexually molested and the boys beaten or threatened, as reported by CBS Los Angeles. The outlet reports that many of the incidents happened at a Matthews Street home and elsewhere in Los Angeles County. Authorities say the children did not speak English when they arrived and were cut off from their mother, who remained abroad.
How the case came to light
The abuse came to the attention of school staff in May 2019, triggering a law enforcement investigation and Alawi's arrest that same month, the DA's news release says. Court papers and prosecutors' filings describe Alawi using threats, including telling the children he would kill them or send them back to a war zone, and in one incident threatening a child with a knife.
Victims' statements at sentencing
At sentencing, one victim told the court, "The defendant took away my childhood, my innocence and separated me from my mother," and another said, "The future is not for me to decide. There is one thing I thank God for; he has given me an example of what not to be; I intend to be the exact opposite," as reported by CBS Los Angeles. According to the DA, the statements were included in the office's release and were read in court during the hearing.
What this means
The sentence is set to keep Alawi in prison for decades and marks a particularly severe punishment in a case that prosecutors said involved years of control, threats and physical violence against vulnerable immigrant children. It also puts a spotlight on the role school staff can play when they listen closely and act on students' reports of suspected abuse.
