Dareen Tatour | Status: Released | Israel
Poet Dareen Tatour, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who has spent more than two years in jail or under house arrest since October 2015, was convicted on May 3,… More
Nasser Zarafshan | Status: Released | Iran
Nasser Zarafshan, a prominent writer and attorney, was released on March 15, 2007, after serving a five-year prison sentence on politically motivated charges. More
Çayan Demirel and Ertuğrul Mavioğlu | Status: On Trial | Turkey
Award-winning filmmaker Çayan Demirel and veteran journalist Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, directors of the documentary Bakur (which means north in Kurdish), were charged in 2017 under Article 7/2-1 of Law no. 3713 on… More
Shokjang (Druklo) | Status: Conditional Release | China/Tibet Autonomous Region
Shokjang, a Tibetan writer and intellectual, was arrested in March 2015 and sentenced to three years in prison on February 17, 2016 for writing an essay and blogpost. More
Irakli Kordzaia | Status: Displaced/In Exile | Georgia
Irakli Kordzaia is currently in exile owing to the continued use of threats, harassment, and intimidation by Georgian authorities in response to his work exposing government corruption and ethical… More
Natalya Sharina | Status: Convicted | Russia
Natalya Sharina, head of the Ukrainian Literature Library in Moscow, was sentenced to four years of probation on June 5, 2017, for allegedly disseminating the works of Ukrainian nationalists… More
Liu Xiaobo | China
Liu Xiaobo, a renowned literary critic, writer, political activist, and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was charged with "inciting subversion of state power," and sentenced to 11-years in prison… More
PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Awardee Oleg Sentsov Turns 41 in Prison
July 13 marks the fourth birthday that Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov has spent incarcerated on charges trumped up to silence his opposition to the Russian annexation of Crimea. More
Liu Xiaobo Must be Allowed to Seek Treatment Abroad
NEW YORK--In response to the statement from Western medical experts that it is safe to transport Liu Xiaobo abroad for cancer treatment, PEN America Executive Director Suzanne Nossel released… More
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