Emirati poet, blogger and human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor continued to serve a 10-year prison term. In July, Mansoor was further convicted in the notorious UAE 84 trial (see Mohamed al-Roken above), and sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison for allegedly supporting the Justice and Dignity Committee.

On 20 March 2017, Mansoor was arrested in the middle of the night at his home where he lived with his wife and four sons.  He was convicted on 29 May 2018 of ‘insulting the 'status and prestige of the UAE and its symbols' including its leaders’ and of ‘seeking to damage the relationship of the UAE with its neighbours by publishing false reports and information on social media.’ He was sentenced by the State Security Chamber of the Federal Appeal Court to 10 years’ imprisonment, followed by three years of surveillance and a fine of 1,000,000 Emirati Dirhams (around USD $270,000).

The sentence was upheld on 31 December 2018 by the State Security Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court. Mansoor’s trial was widely viewed as grossly unfair and lacked the minimum international standards of fair trial and due process. The European Parliament, United Nations Special Rapporteurs, and human rights organisations have all called for his immediate and unconditional release.

In 2019, Mansoor started a hunger strike to protest poor prison conditions and his unfair trial. He has reportedly been kept in an isolation ward in Al-Sadr prison in Abu Dhabi, where he is being held in ‘terrible conditions‘ in a cell with no bed, no water and no access to a shower, which has significantly impacted his health. The UAE has repeatedly denied him access to family visits.

In September 2024, the annual report of the UN Secretary-General about reprisals against those who cooperate with the UN mechanisms cited Mansoor’s case. This was the eighth time that the Secretary-General had denounced reprisals against him, having previously raised concerns in 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Mansoor’s literary analysis and poetry were published in many Emirati newspapers and a collection of his poems  أبعد من عدم Beyond Failure was published in 2010. The 2015 Martin Ennals Laureate, and a member of the advisory boards of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch, Mansoor was the last human rights defender openly working in the UAE. His love for poetry contributed to his fierce defence of freedom of expression and human rights.

The defendants, including Dr Al-Roken, were convicted on 10 July 2024 of bogus ‘charges’ of ‘establishing’ and ‘supporting’ a terrorist group, in relation to their alleged links to the Justice and Dignity Committee, a group of government critics who between 2011 and 2012 called for the respect of human rights in the UAE (see Case Lists 2014 – 2022). Most, if not all, including Al-Roken, were previously convicted of similar vague charges in the notorious ‘UAE 94’ trial and many, including Al-Roken, were being held after expiry of their sentences under a law permitting indefinite detention for ‘rehabilitation’, when news of the fresh charges broke on 10 December 2023 (World Human Rights Day) during the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. (see Case List 2023/2024). The mass trial sparked international outrage, including from UN human rights experts in January and July 2024.

Al-Roken’s investigation records from 2012 reveal that he complained of being held in solitary confinement and being subjected to continuous light exposure, among methods of torture or other ill-treatment used against other ‘UAE 94’ defendants and documented by Human Rights Watch. In April 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concluded that the UAE 94 defendants, including Al-Roken, were held arbitrarily, raising concerns over grave violations of the right to a fair trial, including forced confessions and reports of torture and other ill-treatment, and prolonged solitary confinement. The WGAD concluded that the charges brought against them related to acts that fall under the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly, and urged the UAE government to release them and provide them with adequate reparation. PEN International has long campaigned for his release, including by highlighting his imprisonment in the 2021 Day of the Imprisoned Writer campaign.

Dr Mohamed Abdullah Al-Roken, born 26 September 1962, is a prominent Emirati writer, academic and human rights lawyer specialising in freedom of expression and counter-terrorism. He was a member of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA), the International Bar Association, and is the former president of the dissolved UAE Jurists Association.

On 18 April 2024, Israeli police arrested Shalhoub-Kevorkian at her house in East Jerusalem, also confiscating books and posters. During her detention she was strip-searched, handcuffed tightly, denied access to food, water, and medicine for hours, and held in a cold cell without adequate clothing or blankets. She was interrogated about her academic work on suspicion of ‘offences’ including ‘incitement of terrorism, violence, and racism.’

Shalhoub-Kevorkian was released the following day, on condition that she attend an interrogation and sign a financial guarantee, after the court concluded she posed no threat. The police immediately appealed the release decision, claiming that she engaged in ‘serious incitement against the State of Israel by making statements against Zionism and even claiming that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip’. However, the court rejected the appeal due to lack of evidence.

Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s arrest sparked widespread outrage among academics in Israel and the UK, where she teaches. The senior editors of the British Journal of Criminology also published a supportive statement expressing concerns about her detention.

Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a prominent Palestinian professor and leading legal and feminist scholar whose work focuses on several areas, including genocide studies, law and society, trauma, criminology, surveillance, and gendered violence. Shalhoub-Kevorkian is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law - Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Global Chair in Law at Queen Mary University,London. She is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the British Journal of Criminology, from which she received the Radzinowicz Prize in 2017 for her article ‘The Occupation of the Senses: The Prosthetic and Aesthetic of State Terror’. She has authored numerous academic publications, including ‘Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear’ (2015), and ‘Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding’ (2019), both published by Cambridge University Press (CUP).  She has also co-edited two books, including ‘When Politics are Sacralised: Comparative Perspectives on Religious Claims and Nationalism’, (CUP 2021).

Held for 24 days after her arrest on 6 November 2023 until her release on 30 November as part of a temporary truce deal between Israel and Hamas (see Case List 2023/2024), Tamimi was forced to internally relocate and leave her house in the West Bank due to the Israeli authorities’ escalating crackdown on Palestinians in the West Bank in 2024. She remains unable to travel to continue her studies at Birzeit University due to the arbitrary security measures Israel soldiers enforce on Palestinians at checkpoints across the West Bank. According to her family, Tamimi remains under a travel ban and is unable to travel to pursue her university studies abroad, which resulted in her losing a scholarship opportunity last year. She continues to suffer from health complications due to her prison experience in 2023, including stomach and throat issues and difficulties in sleeping.

Ahed Tamimi is a prominent Palestinian activist and co-author (with Dena Takruri) of They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom (Penguin Random House, 2022), in which she reflects on her personal experience and the daily struggles of life under Israeli occupation. She was previously arrested in December 2017, at the age of 17, following dissemination of a video of an altercation with Israeli soldiers. She was later sentenced to eight months in prison after conviction of charges including ‘aggravated assault.’

Sheta was arrested from his home on 13 December 2023 after Israeli forces broke into his ‘Freedom Theatre’ during a raid on Jenin refugee camp and destroyed its offices. An Israeli military court ordered his administrative detention for six months without any charges on 31 December 2023 (see Case List 2023/2024). The administrative detention order was extended three times in June, August and November 2024. His family remain unable to visit him in prison nor check on his health. However, his family told PEN International that a lawyer was able to see him and reported that he had lost considerable weight since being imprisoned.

Researcher, journalist and former political prisoner Mustafa Sheta, aged about 44, is producer and general manager of the Freedom Theatre, a theatre and cultural centre in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, founded in 2006, which stages professional theatre productions, holds theatre workshops, acting training, and exhibitions and short films.

Monjib, born in 1962, is a writer, academic, historian and the president of Freedom Now, an association that works to defend freedom of expression and journalism in Morocco, and is also the founder of the Ibn Rochd Center for Studies and Communication.  His books include: The Moroccan Monarchy and the Struggle for Power; A Political Biography of Mehdi Ben Barka (with Zakya Daoud);  and Islamists Versus Secularists in Morocco.

Soulaiman Raissouni, born 5 June 1972, is a prominent Moroccan journalist and editor-in-chief of the now-closed opposition newspaper Akhbar al-Youm. While in prison, Raissouni wrote a prison diary, but this and a draft novel were confiscated in 2022, prompting him to refuse family visits for some weeks.  

On 29 July 2024, Omar Radi was released after King Mohamed IV pardoned him and over 2,000 other prisoners, including imprisoned journalists Taoufik Bouachrine, Soulaiman Raissouni, and four self-exiled journalists: Hicham Mansouri, Samad Ait Aicha, Imad Stitou, and Afaf Bernani. Radi was arrested in 2020 and sentenced to six years in prison in 2021 on sexual assault and national security charges after a highly flawed trial, which led PEN International to conclude that Radi was targeted for his criticism of the governments and to deter others (see Case Lists 2020-2023/2024). Radi continues to face the repercussions of his detention as the Moroccan authorities have not clarified whether his sentence has been quashed or not. This uncertainty hampers Radi’s ability to resume his work in Morrocco where journalists with criminal records cannot gain accreditation and work legally.

After his release, Radi was subjected to intensive surveillance and intimidation, and received threats warning him to remain silent following his release, continuing a previous pattern of harassment.  At the time of his arrest in 2020, Radi had already been under surveillance for more than two years by the Moroccan authorities using the notorious Pegasus spyware. Shortly before his arrest, a sustained smear campaign by the Chouftv news website, known to have ties to security agencies, accused Radi of receiving foreign funds to provide espionage services to foreign companies, allegations for which he was subsequently charged and convicted.

Born on 18 July 1986, Radi’s work exposes injustice, corruption, and nepotism between political powers and business elites, and highlights human rights issues, and social movements. He wrote for several websites, including Le Desk news website.

Ahmadi was arrested twice for covering the Mahsa Amini protests. On 6 November 2022, she and her husband, journalist Kamyar Fakour, were arrested only a few weeks after their wedding. The couple were released on bail almost a month later. On 3 January 2023, Ahmadi was sentenced to six years in prison, while Fakour received a one-year sentence, alongside the activation of a separate two-year sentence from 2021. They were convicted of charges including ‘spreading propaganda against the system’ and ‘gathering and colluding against national security’.

On 10 May 2023, the couple were arrested and sent to prison to serve their sentences. They were denied amnesty on 20 August 2023 because of their alleged ‘membership in hostile groups with the intention of toppling the Islamic Republic.’ Ahmadi went on medical strike, refusing to take her epilepsy medication from 9 September 2024 to 6 October 2024, in protest against the denial of her medical furlough request. She was granted a three-day medical leave from prison in late October 2024.

Ahmadi, born in 1998, is known for her journalistic work and advocacy for children's rights. She has also translated several books into Persian, including ‘Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle,’ by Silvia Federici (PM Press, 2012)and ‘Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community‘ by Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Selma James (Falling Wall Press, 1972).

Vasmaghi’s arrest is believed to be linked to her open criticism of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, whom she called a ‘dictator’, and her criticism of the compulsory Hijab law. She faced charges including ‘propaganda against the system’ and ‘public appearance without hijab.’  Vasmaghi has endured decades of harassment and prosecution by the Iranian regime (see Case Lists 2017 - 2020).

Vasmaghi, 63,  is a well-known poet, writer, and women’s rights activist. She obtained her PhD in law at Tehran University and is one of a few women to have taught Islamic law in Iran. As a university lecturer, she worked to highlight and improve women’s status and rights in Iranian society. She has written many articles on political, legal, Islamic, and social issues, published in various newspapers and magazines in Iran, including Cheshm andaz Iran (Perspective in Iran).

Vasmaghi published her first poetry collection, Praying for Rain 1989, for which she received the 1991 Best Book Award from the University of Al-Zahra, Tehran. Since then, she has published five collections of poetry in addition to several academic books and translated classical Arabic poetry into Persian. One of her most famous books is زن، فقه، اسلام  (‘Women, Jurisprudence, Islam’
Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014).

Mahvash Sabet is a teacher and poet serving an unjust 10-year prison sentence imposed in 2022. She has previously spent a decade in prison due solely to her religious beliefs as a member of Iran’s persecuted Baha’i minority (see Case Lists 2013 – 2019, 2022 and 2023/2024). Due to poor prison conditions, and to Iranian authorities repeatedly denying her access to adequate healthcare, her health deteriorated significantly in 2024.

On 31 July 2022, Iranian authorities arrested Sabet and two other members of the long-disbanded ‘Yaran-i-Iran’ (or ‘Friends of Iran’), Fariba Kamalabadi and Afif Naemi – who helped to administer the Baha’i community’s affairs in Iran until 2008 – over unfounded ‘espionage’ charges. According to media sources, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry alleged they were linked to the Baha’i Centre in Israel and had collected and transferred information there. On 21 November 2022, following an unfair trial that lasted only one hour, the Revolutionary Court’s Branch 26 in Tehran sentenced Sabet and Kamalabadi to 10 years in prison. The judge rebuked the defendants for ‘not learning their lesson’ before handing down his harsh sentence.

In December 2024, Sabet was sent to a hospital for urgent medical treatment after her health deteriorated significantly. She was later temporarily released after undergoing open-heart surgery, in order to recover at home. According to her family, among many other health complications, Sabet is suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and heart issues. PEN International remains gravely concerned about the sharp deterioration in Sabet’s health and calls for her not to be returned to prison.

Sabet, born on 4 February 1953, began her professional career as a teacher and worked as a principal at several schools. She also collaborated with the National Literacy Committee of Iran. Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Sabet was fired from her job and blocked from working in public education, like thousands of other Iranian Baha’i educators. She served for 15 years as director of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, which provides alternative higher education for Baha’i youth. Mahvash Sabet began writing poetry in prison, and a collection of her prison poems was translated into English and published in 2013. Two more volumes of poems رها (A Tale of Love – More Prison Poems) and حکایت عاشقی (Love Story) were published in 2019 and 2021. She is an honorary member of Austrian PEN and Danish PEN and was named as English PEN’s 2017 Writer of Courage by PEN Pinter Prize winner Michael Longley. PEN International has campaigned for her release,  including through dedicating an ‘Empty Chair’ to her  at PEN’s 89th International Congress.

In January 2024, Iranian authorities sentenced Mohammadi to a 15-month prison term. On 18 June 2024, Mohammadi’s lawyer announced that Branch 29 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court had sentenced her to another year in prison for ‘propaganda against the system’ related to her writings criticising Iran’s grim human rights record. The court ruling cited Mohammadi’s calls for Iranians to boycott parliamentarian elections due to a lack of democratic guarantees, as well as her letters to the Swiss and Norwegian Parliaments. On October 19, 2024, Branch 2 of the Criminal Court of the Ghods Judicial Complex in Tehran sentenced Mohammadi to six months in prison for participating in a peaceful protest against the execution of Reza Rasai, held inside Evin Prison.

Mohammadi has faced reprisals by the Iranian authorities for her human right work for over 14 years, including multiple unjust prison terms after conviction of bogus charges including ‘propaganda against the system’, ‘defamation’ and ‘rebellious conduct while incarcerated’ (see Case Lists 2023/2024, 2022, and 2021). Her family believes that many of her sentences were imposed in retaliation for her book, White Torture (Oneworld, 2022), in which she documents the experienced of imprisoned Iranian women.

Mohammadi suffers from a neurological disorder that can result in seizures, temporary partial paralysis, and a pulmonary embolism for which she is said to be denied essential medication that could prevent further blood clots from forming. She continued to be denied medical treatment throughout 2024, resulting in further health complications. Her family reported in August that she is suffering from cardiovascular issues, gastrointestinal complications, and spinal disc herniation. On 4 December 2024, Mohammadi was temporarily released from jail on medical grounds to allow her recovery from a recent surgery.

Mohammadi, born on 21 April 1972, is an Honorary Member of the Danish, Belgian, Norwegian and Swedish PEN centres. She is the former Vice-President and spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), co-winner of the 2013 Oxfam Novib/PEN Award, winner of the 2011 Per Anger Prize and the 2009 Alexander Langer Award. In December 2022, Mohammadi was awarded the RSF Prize for Courage for her tireless fight for press freedom and human rights. In 2023, she was awarded the  PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Prize, UNESCO’s Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize and in October 2023, she was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.

Despite receiving a presidential pardon in 2023 after over a decade in prison, which the UN WGAD deemed to constitute arbitrary detention, the Egyptian authorities continued to persecute Douma throughout 2024. Since his release, Douma has actively been raising awareness about the situation of detainees in Egyptian prisons. He was also at the forefront of the rare pro-Palestinian protests in Cairo in January 2024. Due to his chants during the protests, he was subject to a smear campaign by pro-government media. A few days following his participation in the protests, a complaint was filed against him by a pro-government lawyer, accusing him of endangering national peace and spreading false news.  In July, Douma faced an online smear campaign after pro-government religious figures deemed parts of his 2021 poetry collection Curly as ‘blasphemy.’ On 5 October, the Egyptian Public Prosecutor opened an investigation into complaints against Douma accusing him of writing ‘blasphemous phrases’ in his poetry collection. On 15 October, Douma was physically assaulted by three individuals in plain clothes in an apparent targeted attack. On 10 November, the SSSP released Douma on bail of EGP 20,000 (approximately £315) after an eight-hour investigation concerning statements he made on social media earlier in November about the MV Kathrin, a cargo ship previously linked to transporting weapons to Israel, docking at Egypt’s Port of Alexandria. He was not allowed to have a copy of the case file or to receive details about the complaint that spurred the investigation.

Ahmed Douma, born on 11 September 1985, wrote about his experiences, dreams, and aspirations during his prolonged imprisonment in his 2012 poetry collection صوتك طالع (Your voice is Heard). Security officials demanded Dar El Maraya, his publishers, to remove copies of his 2021 collection Curly at the 2021 Cairo International Book Fair.

Ismail Alexandrani, an award-winning writer, investigative journalist and socio-political researcher, has worked with several research centres, including the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights and the Arab Reform Initiative, and is best known for his research and writings on militant groups operating in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. His work has been published in various regional and international media, as well as academic journals, including the independent Lebanese newspapers Assafir and al-Modon, and the American Arab Studies Journal Jadaliyya. He contributed to the book Egypt beyond Tahrir Square (Indiana University Press, 2016). Alexandrani was awarded the 2015 Visiting Arab Journalist Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In 2014, he won the Open Eye - Hany Darweesh Award for Exceptional Essay. In 2009, he was one of the global winners in the World Youth Movement for Democracy’s Youth Essay Contest on Democracy, and the winner of the National Contest for Spreading Understanding and Mutual Respect at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

El-Behairy was arrested on 5 March 2018 at Cairo International Airport while attempting to travel abroad. He initially faced charges of ‘joining a terrorist group’, ‘disseminating false news’, and ‘insulting the President’ for lyrics he had written for the song Balaha, performed, and disseminated online by exiled Egyptian singer Ramy Essam. The song heavily criticised President Sisi and was deemed insulting to the president. This case was eventually dropped, but he was sentenced to three years in prison in a separate case for allegedly ‘disseminating false news and rumours’ and ‘insulting the Egyptian army’ in his unpublished poetry collection, خير نسوان الأرض The Finest Women on Earth.

In July 2021, after his sentence expired, he was subjected to enforced disappearance for three weeks before being freshly charged with ‘disseminating false news’ and ‘joining a terrorist group’ by the Supreme State Security Prosecution. He exceeded the maximum legal limit of pre-trial detention without a trial on 5 September 2023; however, Egyptian authorities continue to detain him arbitrarily (see Case Lists 2018 – 2023/2024).

In protest at his continued detention, El-Behairy has undertaken several hunger strikes. El-Behairy’s family has informed PEN International that his health has significantly deteriorated due to his imprisonment, poor prison conditions, lack of adequate medical care, and prolonged hunger strikes. He suffers from high blood pressure, joint pain and heart problems. His mental health has severely deteriorated in recent years and he has attempted to commit suicide. The family informed PEN International in December 2024 that  El-Behairy continues to suffer from a lack of access to adequate medical care as Egyptian authorities have denied his requests for treatment for a tumour in his mouth, which is causing difficulty in swallowing and requires urgent medical intervention. On 17 November 2024, El-Behairy and his family members were subjected to invasive body searches after their visit to Badr 1 prison, to which El-Behairy objected. In response, a prison officer threatened to take him to the torture room, which has no cameras in prison Badr 3 and ‘do whatever he wants with him.’

PEN International has constantly campaigned for his release, including by highlighting his detention on the 2019 Day of the Imprisoned Writer and by featuring him as an emblematic case in the 2023/2024 Case List.

Galal El-Behairy, born on 27 June 1990, is a poet and lyricist known for critical views of the Egyptian authorities. Two collections of his poetry have been published: Masna’a El Karasy (The Chair Factory, 2015) and Segn Bel Alwan (Colorful Prison, 2017).

Security forces stormed Omar’s house on 22 July 2004, confiscated his personal belongings, blindfolded him and took him to an unidentified location where he was held incommunicado without access to his family or lawyer for more than two days. According to a statement by Omar’s family, he was physically assaulted during the arrest and subjected to intimidation before appearing in front of the Supreme State Security Prosecutor (SSSP) on 24 July, who  questioned him about his work, including translations and cartoons, before ordering his pre-trial detention on bogus charges, including ‘dissemination of false news’, ‘misusing the internet’, and ‘membership of a terrorist group’. On 4 August, his lawyer demanded the SSPP investigate Omar’s allegations of ill-treatment and properly document all personal belongings confiscated during his arrest, which the police had failed to include in the case documentation. The SSPP had extended his detention 10 times by the end of the year.

Born on 8 May 1968, Ashraf Omar is a cartoonist and translator who worked with several independent media and news websites, including Al-Manassa and Al-Hoodoud. His work tackles social, political and economic issues in Egypt, including the debt crisis and electricity outages.

Update: On 16 January 2025, national security officers arrested Omar’s wife Nada Mougheeth, an academic and translator, from her home for speaking out on behalf of her imprisoned husband. The SSSP charged Mougheeth with ‘spreading false news’ and ‘joining a terrorist group,’ but later the same day released her on bail. The day before, authorities also arrested writer and journalist Ahmed Serag on charges including ‘membership of a terrorist group,’ ‘spreading false news,’ and ‘propagating terrorist ideas.’ Serag had recently interviewed Mougheeth about Omar’s arrest and ongoing detention, in which she criticised security forces for arbitrarily arresting her husband.

Arrested in September 2019, he was sentenced to five years in prison in 2021 on fabricated charges including ‘joining an illegal organisation’, ‘spreading false news,’ and ‘misusing social media’ after a grossly unfair trial before the Emergency State Security Court. Abd El-Fattah has been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and held in deplorable prison conditions, as well as prohibited from accessing books and newspapers, all of which has impacted his health. In 2022, Abd El-Fattah underwent a lengthy hunger strike in protest at his conditions of detention and to call attention to the human rights situation in Egypt (see Case Lists 2019 to 2023/2024). This is his second period of imprisonment; he previously served an unjust five year sentence for participating in a peaceful protest in 2013.

On 29 September 2024, Abd El-Fattah completed his five-year sentence; however, Egyptian authorities continue to arbitrarily detain him beyond his prison term. According to his family, the Egyptian authorities refuse to recognise the more than two years that Abd El-Fattah spent in pre-trial detention, pushing his release date to January 2027. Egyptian authorities also continue to deny Abd El-Fattah’s access to a lawyer and British consular visits. His mother, academic and human rights activist Laila Soueif, started an open-ended hunger strike on 29 September to protest Abd El-Fattah’s arbitrary imprisonment.

In April and November 2024, PEN International, along with a coalition of human rights organisations, sent a letter to the UN WGAD on behalf of Abd El-Fattah, urging the working group to announce its opinion on his detention. PEN International and English PEN joined Abd El-Fattah’s mother Laila Soueif in multiple demonstrations outside the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office to urge the UK authorities to do more to secure his release.

Born on 18 November 1981, dual British-Egyptian national Alaa Abd El-Fattah was a crucial voice of the 2011-2012 Arab Spring uprisings, during which he documented human rights abuses and advocated for democracy. His book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated (2022, Seven Stories Press), which compiles some of his profoundly influential writings, has received widespread acclaim. He won the 2022 Electronic Frontier Foundation Award for Democratic Reform Advocacy and PEN Canada’s One Humanity Award in 2023. Abd El-Fattah was named the 2024 Writer of Courage by PEN Pinter Prize 2024 winner Arundhati Roy.

On 29 January 2024, he was arrested from his home in Algiers and received a pre-trial detention order. Two days later, Tadjadit appeared before the prosecutor at the Court of Roubia in the Algerian capital in the absence of his lawyer. He faced charges under Articles 87 bis 4 and bis 12 of the Penal Code, including ‘glorification of terrorism‘ and ‘using communication technologies to support the actions and activities of terrorist organisations,’ concerning his social media videos and private communications. Tadjadit was released on 31 October 2024 following a presidential pardon, which included over 4,000 prisoners, among whom were many journalists and another Hirak poet, Djamila Bentouis.

Mohamed Tadjadit, born in 1995, participated in the Algerian anti-government protests in February 2019 known as the ‘Hirak’ movement – sparked by the election of President Boutafiliqa to a fifth term in office – where he performed his slam poetry critical of the authorities. He has been dubbed ‘the poet of the Hirak’, becoming a well-known figure of the protest movement, resulting in increased state surveillance and judicial harassment; he has been arrested at least four times since 2019 in connection with his poetry and political activism in Hirak (see Case List 2020).

Update: On 16 January 2025, Algerian authorities arrested and detained Tadjadit in relation to his online expression. Four days later, he was sentenced to five years in prison. On 23 January, a European Parliament resolution called for his release.

On 9 December 2024, Sansal’s French lawyer, François Zimeray, was denied entry to Algeria to represent his client before the court. Two days later, an Algerian appeal court refused Sansal’s appeal for release. On 16 December 2024, Sansal was hospitalised at his request, for the second time since his detention, raising concerns about his health.

Sansal, born in Algeria on 15 October 1949, was granted French citizenship in 2024. Previously a government official, he began writing at the age of 50 and is the author of  2084: La fin du monde (2084: The End of the World, 2015) for which he received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française and the prize-winning 2008 novel Le village de l'Allemand ou le journal des frères Schiller  (translated into English as An Unfinished Business), among several other remarkable novels published by Gallimard. He received the Prix du Premier Roman  and the Prix Tropiques for his debut novel Le serment des barbares (The Barbarians' Oath) in 1999, and the Arab Novel Prize for his novel Rue Darwin (2011) in 2012. Sansal was also awarded the German Book Trade Peace Prize in 2011, and honoured with the Grand Prix de la Francophonie from the Académie Française in 2013.

Maksim Znak was arrested by members of the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee of Belarus at Viktar Babaryka’s election headquarters on 9 September 2020, and placed in pre-trial detention. He was subsequently charged with ‘inciting actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus’, ‘conspiring to seize power by unconstitutional means’ and ‘creating an extremist formation’, and tried alongside Maryia Kalesnikava, who headed Viktar Babaryka’s campaign team.  Their trial opened in Minsk on 4 August 2021 behind closed doors. They were both found guilty on 6 September 2021, with Znak receiving a 10-year sentence, and Kalesnikava 11 years in prison. In May 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for his immediate and unconditional release. Znak was last seen by his lawyer in February 2023 (see Case List 2023/2024).  

Maksim Znak, born on 4 September 1981, is a lawyer, professor at the Law Faculty of the Belarusian State University, poet, and lyricist. While detained, Znak wrote Зекамерон (The Zekameron: One hundred tales from behind bars and eyelashes, Vremja, Moscow, 2022), in which he poignantly details his new everyday life.