Syrian family lobbies U.S. to help jailed Christian mayor

Natalie Khalil on Tuesday spoke to a gathering on Capitol Hill Tuesday to call on President Donald Trump and lawmakers to pressure the Syrian government to free her father. She also planned to plead his case before the U.S. State Department officials for the Levant region on Tuesday. Suleiman Khalil has been imprisoned for 19 months and denied access to a lawyer, but has never been charged with a crime, Natalie told WORLD.

Christians have continued to face persecution in Syria following a 2024 regime change. The United States recently removed sanctions against Syria and dropped its longstanding designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month said he recognized the Syrian government’s actions and commitment to counter terrorism.

Khalil said she’s not against the United States’ recent decisions, because the economic pressure of the sanctions affected ordinary people more than the government. But Syria’s new government has not protected human rights or religious liberty, she said: “Just like my father, there are thousands of people in prison without any charges, without explanation.”

Khalil said Syria’s new government is likely retaliating against her father for both religious and political reasons. Suleiman Khalil is a Christian who is well-known in Syria as a local leader and former mayor, she said. Prison officials have not allowed him to have a Bible or cross, and have forced him to follow the Muslim fast of Ramadan twice during his imprisonment, she said. He became prominent in 2015, when he organized locals to fight and successfully defend their majority-Christian town from an attack by ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front.

In 2024, Al-Nusra toppled the Assad regime and took control of most of Syria. Its commander, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is now president of Syria. Under his watch, authorities failed to prevent or administer justice for documented massacres of religious minorities, including Christians, Druze, and Alawites. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom this year recomended that Syria be flagged as a country of particular concern.

Khalil, 22, has been working for her father’s release since his imprisonment. In March, she spoke to the UN Human Rights Council and Syrian ambassadors, with the help of advocates from Christian Solidarity International, or CSI. She received a non-answer from Syrian authorities, according to CSI’s Joel Veldkamp. A few U.S. congressmen have so far agreed to support her petition for Trump to intervene, and she had meetings scheduled with more on Tuesday, Veldkamp told WORLD.

Veldkamp said he would speak alongside Khalil at the meetings, urging politicians not only to free her father but also to push for better conditions in Syria. “The U.S. has more leverage over Syria right now than at any other point in history,” he said. “What happens in this year will determine whether or not there’s a future for Christians in Syria.” The fear is that Syria could become well-integrated with other countries, but remain an oppressive state like Afghanistan, where technocrats hold new power alongside the Taliban.

Meanwhile, Suleiman Khalil remains in prison. Natalie Khalil said she has only seen her father a few times since his imprisonment. For four months, her family didn’t know where he was, and they weren’t allowed to make an official visit for over a year. When they did visit, it was for roughly five minutes. They were required to wear Islamic clothes and remove Christian symbols such as a cross necklace, she said. The prison was humid, dirty, and packed with people. Her father spoke to them from behind the bars of his cell.

Their conversations in prison were short, mostly focused on how everyone was doing, she said. But her father smuggled one letter out of prison, in which he wrote that he didn’t regret defending their town. He said “if the same thing happened again for my village, I would protect you again,” she recollected.

What’s the family’s plan if the Syrian government frees her father? 

Natalie and her sister live in the United States. They fled Syria a year ago as danger increased. Her mother and brother, along with her father, are still in Syria. If he is eventually released, Khalil said she hopes her family will be reunited in the United States. They would likely apply for asylum, she said.

However, she also said there’s a possibility that the family would return to Syria if the new government changes. She’s come to miss the country she left and understand her father’s passion for the area. “He really loves his country, and that’s why we were able to love the country,” she said. “I got his love in my blood.”