Mümtaz’er Türköne

Police detained Türköne, a columnist for the daily Zaman, as part of a purge of suspected Gülenists after the failed July 2016 coup. Türköne was sentenced in 2018 to… More

Ali Ünal

A columnist at the daily Zaman, Ünal was arrested in August 2016 during a purge of followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen following the coup attempt. Ünal had previously… More

Writers at Risk Database

Selahattin Demirtaş

Writer and leader of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, Demirtaş has been jailed since 2016 despite his detention being ruled unconstitutional and the ECHR ordering his release. In March… More

Ahmet Altan

Altan was detained after the 2016 coup attempt on spurious charges. After his life sentence was reduced to 10.5 years, he was released in 2019, but was promptly rearrested.… More

Abdulrahman Farhana

Farhana, a columnist who wrote on Palestinian and regional politics and Islamist political movements for Al Jazeera and other outlets, was detained in February 2019. Farhana is being held… More

Zuhair Kutbi

Kutbi was imprisoned in January 2019 as part of a crackdown on dissident journalists. He had already served 2 years from 2015-2017 on charges of "inciting against the state."… More

Writers at Risk Database

Fahad Al-Fahad

Al-Fahad was arrested in April 2016 for violating Saudi cybercrime laws with tweets criticizing the Saudi criminal justice system and government corruption. He is currently serving a five year… More

Nadhir Al-Majid

Al-Majid was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison in January 2017 in connection with an opinion piece he wrote in 2011 titled “I protest, therefore I am,”… More

Marwan Almuraisy

Almuraisy was arrested and forcibly disappeared in June 2018. Though he was a prominent figure on social media, his disappearance puzzled observers because he was not involved in political… More

Moqbel Al-Saqqar

A novelist noted for his support of women's rights, Al-Saqqar was arrested in the April 2019 crackdown on writers and journalists in Saudi Arabia. He was detained without access… More