Michel Kilo

Michel Kilo (ميشيل كيلو, born 1940) is a Syrian Christian writer and human rights activist, who has been called "one of Syria's leading opposition thinkers."

Career
Kilo was born in the Syrian Mediterranean coastal city and province of Latakia in 1940.

He studied journalism in Egypt and Germany. He has translated many political and economics books from German to English. As a columnist he wrote opinion pieces for two Arabic papers, the Lebanese daily Annahar and the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi. In 2011 he wrote several articles about the Syrian uprising for the As-Safir Lebanese daily newspaper.

Troubles with the government
Kilo was first arrested by the government in the early 1980s, following this arrest he moved to France but came back to Syria in 1991. Following the Damascus Spring movement, Kilo was a central figure in the Damascus Declaration of 2005 and called for "peaceful, gradual," reform "founded on accord, and based on dialogue and recognition of the other."

On 12 May 2006, the Beirut-Damascus Declaration, calling for normalising Lebanese-Syrian relations after decades of domination by Syria of its smaller neighbour Lebanon, was published with Kilo as one of its signatories. He was arrested yet again and a year later was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of "weakening national sentiment and encouraging sectarian strife." On 19 May 2009, he was released after completing all of his sentence. In May 2013, Michel Kilo declined to become a member of the Syrian National Coalition of Revolution and Opposition Forces after his group was offered only 5 seats on the said coalition.