Supporters can use our website to send an email to the Syrian foreign minister, asking him to tell his government to free Suleiman Khalil, a heroic Christian former mayor, from prison.
Today, Christian Solidarity International is launching a campaign to Free Suleiman Khalil from prison in Syria.
Supporters can use CSI’s campaigns page to send an email to Syria’s foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, on Suleiman’s behalf.
Suleiman Khalil, 51, is the former mayor of Sadad, an ancient Christian-majority town in Homs province of Syria.
The security forces of Syria’s new regime arrested Suleiman at his home in Sadad on 8 February 2025. Since then, he has been held in prison in Homs, without being charged with a crime, and without having access to a lawyer.
Jihadists attacked Sadad twice during Suleiman’s tenure as mayor. In October 2013, a rebel coalition led by ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra attacked Sadad. The latter organization was al Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria, and was founded by the current president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and their allies occupied Sadad for one week, during which they desecrated the town’s churches and killed 41 civilians, including 14 women and two children, according to Human Rights Watch. The bodies of an entire family were retrieved from a well.
In November 2015, Sadad came under attack again, by the Islamic State (ISIS). This time, however, Suleiman Khalil successfully organized local volunteers to defend the town, and the Islamic State’s advance was stopped. It was in Sadad that a CSI team met him a year later.
Suleiman was not a member or supporter of the Ba’ath party. He was not a combatant in the civil war. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he is being punished for having the temerity to organize the defence of a Christian village against the Islamic State.
At the UN Human Rights Council in July, CSI presented a letter from Suleiman’s daughter, Natalie, to Geir Pedersen, the UN Special Envoy for Syria. CSI has also issued appeals on Suleiman’s behalf to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ahmad al-Sharaa, Syria’s new president.
“Suleiman Khalil is a true hero for our times,” said Joel Veldkamp, CSI’s Director for Public Advocacy. “At a time when the whole world had abandoned Syria and especially Syria’s Christians, he took a stand to defend his townspeople against almost certain massacre at the hands of ISIS.”
“Now it is Suleiman who needs to be defended,” Veldkamp continued. “We urge Christians, supporters of human rights, and people of good will around the world to participate in this campaign to free Suleiman Khalil.”
