Michel Kilo

Michel Kilo was a Syrian Christian writer and human rights activist, who has been called "one of Syria's leading opposition thinkers." He studied journalism in Egypt and Germany and translated many political and economic books from German to Arabic. He wrote opinion pieces for several Arabic newspapers and was involved in various pro-democracy movements in Syria. He was arrested several times by the Syrian regime for his criticism and advocacy for political reform and human rights. He was one of the signatories of the Damascus Declaration in 2005, which called for a peaceful and gradual transition to democracy in Syria. He was also one of the supporters of the Syrian uprising in 2011 and opposed the Assad regime's violent repression of the protesters. He moved to Paris in 2009 and continued to write and speak about the Syrian situation. He died on 19 April 2021, at a hospital in Paris from COVID-19. He was 81 years old.