A group of religious freedom advocates is pressing for the release of the former mayor of a majority Christian town in Syria whom they say has been held for more than a year without charges.
Suleiman Khalil, 51, was arrested Feb. 8, 2025, according to an open letter asking the State Department to intervene for Khalil’s immediate release. Khalil is notable for his involvement in helping his townspeople in Sadad, near Damascus, during an attack from al-Qaida jihadists in 2013 and staving off Islamic State militants in 2015.
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Signers of the letter dated June 29 to Thomas Barrack, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq, include Sam Brownback, a former U.S. senator and former U.S. ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, CSI President John Eibner, In Defense of Christians Executive Director Richard Ghazal, and several others.
The new Syrian government, led by a former al-Qaida terrorist, Ahmed al-Sharaa, seized power when the government of dictator Bashar al-Assad fell in January 2025. During the U.S.-Iraq war, al-Sharaa was held in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
“Khalil’s arrest is widely seen as punishment for his successfully defending a Christian town against jihadist attack, including by jihadists linked to the new Syrian government,” CSI says on its website, which includes an online petition calling for Khalil’s release.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Jerry Pierce and originally published by Decision Magazine.
