The family of Suleiman Khalil, a former mayor in Sadad, Syria, is urging U.S. officials to intervene after he spent 19 months in detention without charges under the Syrian transitional government.
Khalil was arrested and detained Feb. 8, 2025. His daughter and advocacy group Christian Solidarity International (CSI) have urged U.S. governmental intervention.
Veronica Dudo, “EWTN News Nightly” anchor, interviewed Khalil’s daughter, Natalie Khalil, and Joel Veldkamp, CSI director for public advocacy, on Sept. 14 about the detention, the state of U.S.-Syrian relations, and Natalie’s recent letter to President Donald Trump appealing for help.
“It’s been 19 months since they got him. We don’t know why they got him. They didn’t claim that they have any charges against him. We weren’t allowed to get a lawyer. They came to our house and said, ‘He was wanted,’” she said.
Khalil, known for his Christian faith, gained wide respect in 2015 when he organized the defense of Sadad during an ISIS assault, an effort credited with saving more than 9,000 residents.
Veldkamp said: “Suleiman Khalil is very well known in Syria for saving the town.”
He received an early warning that ISIS, a violent extremist organization responsible for mass atrocities across Syria and Iraq, was approaching, Veldkamp said.
Khalil was not aligned with the former regime but was an independent Christian political figure who acted out of necessity to protect his community, Veldkamp said.
Veldkamp said it appears Khalil is being punished for those actions, a move that sends a stark warning to Christians across Syria about their place in the country. Veldkamp said such treatment threatens the survival of the Christian community in one of the world’s oldest centers of Christianity. The treatment of Khalil, Veldkamp said, undercuts the government’s own assurances to Washington.
“For the new Syrian government, which has only been in power for about two years, to tell the United States that they’re joining their fight against terrorism, and then to put a man like this in prison, it sends a very confusing message to the U.S. It sends a terrible message to Christians in Syria who are really uncertain about their future under this new government,” Veldkamp said.
“The new Syrian government is very dependent on the U.S. government — on the Trump administration. The Trump administration has high hopes for Syria,” Veldkamp said.
‘We weren’t allowed to be Christians’
Natalie Khalil said the family faced strict limits during their visits, including rules that barred them from expressing their Christian identity.
“Even when we went to visit, we weren’t allowed to be ourselves,” she said. “We were asked to wear hijab to cover the head and hair. We were to cover the whole body. Yet, my brother went wearing a necklace with a cross — they took it off his neck. We weren’t allowed to be Christians in that place.”
She added: “I wasn’t able to get him a Bible inside to the prison.”
In a letter to Trump, Natalie expressed her plea for justice.
“My story is not unique. I don’t need special treatment; I just need the justice for my father’s case,” Natalie said.
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