The daughter of a Christian detained in Syria without charges since February 2025 on Tuesday (Sept. 15) called on the U.S. administration to use its influence to secure his release.
As representatives of Christian advocacy groups prepared to meet with administration officials and congress members to urge action on behalf of Suleiman Khalil, a Syriac Orthodox Christian who as mayor of Sadad led the defense of the town against the Islamic State in 2015, his daughter, Natalie Khalil, called on President Donald Trump to help.
“President Trump, please use your influence to bring my father home,” Khalil said in a press statement. “He is a father to me and my siblings, but because of his sacrifice and leadership, he is also a father and hero to our entire Christian village, Sadad.”
The statement came as part of an effort on Capitol Hill by advocacy groups In Defense of Christians (IDC) and Christian Solidarity International (CSI) to urge Washington to defend religious freedom and protect Christians and other minorities in Syria.
The 52-year-old Khalil, who was allied with no political side amid Syria’s civil war, has not been charged with a crime, granted access to a lawyer or allowed regular visits from his family since the new Syrian government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former member of Al Qaeda, imprisoned him on Feb. 8, 2025.
“Suleiman Khalil’s continued detention is a test of whether Syria’s new government will guarantee constitutional rights equally to all of the country’s religious and ethnic communities, and whether Christians and other religious minorities can have confidence in their future in Syria,” Richard Ghazal, IDC’s executive director, said in a statement. “A man who risked his life to defend his town against ISIS should not languish in prison without charge. As the United States reengages with Syria, Congress and the administration must make religious freedom, equal citizenship, and the protection of vulnerable minorities central to U.S. policy.”
Congress removed sanctions against Syria last December, and in August the U.S. administration rescinded Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism without any evidence that its removal was merited, Ghazal told a briefing of advocates earlier on Tuesday.
While the Syrian Transitional Government of Al-Sharaa has distanced itself from attacks on Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities, the new government is directly or indirectly linked to the violence due to “this culture of impunity they’ve created, where Islamist groups can carry out these attacks, and the Syrian government is, ‘hear nothing see nothing,’” Ghazal told the advocates.
“So impunity, no accountability, is what allows these things to happen,” he said. “And it will continue that way until Western governments, in this case the U.S. government, has higher expectations and demands higher deliverables from them.”
Natalie Khalil told EWTN News on Monday (Sept. 14) that Syrian authorities prohibited the family from enlisting an attorney for her father and did not specify any charges against him.
“They came to our house and said, ‘He was wanted,’” she said.
Suleiman Khalil’s organizing defense of Sadad against the Islamic State assault in 2015 is credited with saving 9,000 lives.
Khalil received an early warning that the Islamic State militants were approaching Joel Veldkamp, CSI director for public advocacy, told EWTN News, adding that is appears the widely known Christians was being punished for those actions.
“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.,” he told EWTN. “It sends a terrible message to Christians in Syria who are really uncertain about their future under this new government.”
Natalie Khalil told the outlet that, during limited visits to her father, the Islamist government restricted expressions of their Christian identity, and that she was prohibited from giving him a Bible.
“We were asked to wear hijab to cover the head and hair. We were to cover the whole body,” she told EWTN. “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.”
CSI, IDC and others sent an open letter in June to Ambassador Tom Barrack, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Syria and Iraq.
“Mr. Khalil’s actions in defending his town against ISIS should be celebrated by all Syrians, especially the new government, which has officially joined the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS,” the letter writers stated. “Instead, Syria’s government appears to be punishing him for it.”
Barrack has been a strong advocate for U.S. support for the new Syrian government, which came to power after the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad collapsed in December 2024.
“We respectfully ask you to intervene with the Syrian authorities to secure Mr. Khalil’s immediate release,” the letter writers stated. “By calling upon the Syrian government to immediately release Mr. Khalil – or, at a minimum, to provide him with access to legal counsel, necessary medical care, full and transparent notice of any charges against him, and the due process protections required by law – you would contribute powerfully to President Trump’s goal of protecting Christians in the Middle East, underline the United States’ and Syria’s shared commitment to fighting terrorism, and help ensure that the ‘new Syria’ will, indeed, be for all Syrians.”
The letter was signed by John Eibner for CSI, Ghazal for IDC, Brownback, Nadine Maenza of the Institute for Global Engagement, Charmaine Hedding of the Shai Fund, Robert Ozgun of the American Syriac Union, and Morhaf Ibrahim, president of the Alawite Association of the United States.
There has been no official response from Barrack to the letter, although his office immediately acknowledged receipt and affirmed U.S. commitment to the protection of Christians in Syria, Veldkamp told Christian Daily International.
CSI is campaigning for Khalil’s immediate release. Supporters can send a message on his behalf directly to the Syrian Foreign Ministry through the CSI website.
Syria was ranked No. 6 on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List (WWL), a dramatic decline from its ranking the previous year at No. 18, largely due to a spike in violence.
