writer

Salama Kaileh

سلامة كيلة

Also known as: Salama Kileh • Salama Kila

Journeys

Salama Kaileh: Tortured in Damascus, Expelled to Jordan, Never Charged

Salama Kaileh's arrest in May 2012 exposed something specific about Assad's Syria: that the regime did not distinguish between Islamists, liberals, and Marxists when arresting opponents. Any voice that supported the uprising — regardless of ideology — was subject to the same cells and the same hands.

Biography

Salama Kaileh is a Palestinian-Jordanian Marxist writer and intellectual who lived in Syria for decades, working on political philosophy and Arab left politics. In May 2012 he was arrested by Syrian Air Force Intelligence in Damascus, held for weeks, and subjected to severe torture. He was then expelled to Jordan rather than tried — a move that acknowledged the regime had no legal basis for his detention. He documented his experience in a memoir that described in precise detail what Syrian intelligence interrogators did to political prisoners. His case is one of the clearest accounts of how the Assad regime treated Arab leftist intellectuals who refused to endorse the crackdown.

Documentation Status

VerificationConfirmed

Journeys1

Key Facts

Born:1955-01-01

Place:Jordan (Palestinian family)

Nationality:Palestinian-Jordanian