Daughter of detained Syrian man appeals to UN Special Envoy for help

Suleiman Khalil, former mayor of Sadad, has been held incommunicado since February 8.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, July 1, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The daughter of Suleiman Khalil, the former mayor of Sadad in Syria, has written to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Mr. Geir Pedersen, asking him to intervene on behalf of her imprisoned father.

Natalie Khalil, the eldest daughter of the imprisoned former mayor, also made an appeal by video, at a side event held by Christian Solidarity International (CSI) at the 59th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“On 8 February 2025, armed security officials came to our home in Sadad,” Natalie told the diplomats and human rights activists gathered at the event at the Human Rights Council. “They searched our whole house for weapons, but found nothing. Nonetheless, they arrested my father and took him away. We haven’t been able to speak to him since then.”

Khalil, 51, was elected mayor of Sadad, a majority-Christian town, in 2011. In 2015, he helped to organize the defense of Sadad against an attack by the Islamic State (ISIS). Through his actions, he is widely credited with helping to save the people of Sadad from massacre.

“Suleiman’s heroism when Sadad was under assault by the Islamic State greatly enhanced his local popularity,” Joel Veldkamp, the director of Christian Solidarity International said. “Seeing him as a threat, the Assad regime engineered his removal from office in 2016.”

Unlike most government officials at the time, Khalil was not a member of the ruling Ba’ath party under President Bashar al-Assad. CSI first met Mr. Khalil on a fact-finding visit to Sadad in 2017.

In December 2024, the Assad dictatorship was overthrown by a rebel coalition led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who assumed Syria’s presidency in January 2025. Ahmed al-Sharaa was the founder and leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, an al Qaeda-linked group that also attacked Sadad in 2013, killing scores of civilians.

Since assuming power, al-Sharaa has repeatedly promised an end to political repression, and to protect the rights of all Syrians, regardless of religious or ethnic background. Article 18 of Syria’s constitutional declaration, which al-Sharaa promulgated on March 13, 2025, states, “With the exception of the case of a crime committed in plain sight, no person may be arrested, detained, or have his freedom restricted, except by judicial order.”

Nonetheless, Natalie wrote to Mr. Pedersen, “My father hasn’t been charged with any crime. He has not been allowed to see any lawyer. We haven’t been allowed to visit him or communicate with him in any way.” The family believes he is being held in a special interrogation prison in Homs.

Noting that working on the release of detainees is a key priority for the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Natalie asked Mr. Pedersen to “to engage directly with President Ahmed al-Sharaa and ask him for our father’s immediate release.”

Introducing the video from Natalie, Veldkamp said that in recent months, “the mood in Syria has shifted – people no longer feel free to speak,” as they did after the Assad regime’s collapse in December.

“That makes it all the more remarkable that the courageous young woman who you are about to meet has decided to speak,” he said.

Christian Solidarity International is calling for Suleiman Khalil’s immediate release.

Joel Veldkamp
Christian Solidarity International
+41 44 982 33 10
joel.veldkamp@csi-int.org
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