Kila, a Palestinian writer and journalist, was arrested in March 1992 by security forces in Damascus. His trial began in the summer of 1993. According to the London-based International PEN, Kila had “reportedly written an article on censorship in Syria for a Jordanian daily paper.” The court ruled that he was guilty of a misdemeanor rather than a felony. Since the maximum sentence for a misdemeanor is three years, his release was expected in March 1995. He was still in prison at the end of 1999.