Ali Al-Saffar
Al-Saffar is one of several commentators and writers arrested in April 2019. He had previously written about the Syrian Civil War and regional conflicts but had not been active… More
Mohammed Saud Al-Bishr
Al-Bishr, a professor and commentator on politics and religion, was arrested in October 2017. Human rights monitors report that he was arrested for commenting on excessive censorship in media.… More
Redha Al-Boori
Al-Boori was arrested in April 2019 in a wave of arrests targeting writers and commentators. Prior to his arrest, he had written about regional politics, though he had not… More
Nouf Abdulaziz
Columnist and women’s rights activist Abdulaziz was arrested and detained in June 2018. While in detention, she was reportedly tortured and sexually harassed. In February 2021, after prolonged delays… More
Waleed Abu Al-Khair
Al-Khair was the first activist prosecuted under a new Saudi Arabian law that introduced overly broad definitions of terrorism, such that it applies to speech. In June 2014, he… More
Raif Badawi
Badawi was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for “insulting Islam” and “founding a liberal website,” Free Saudi Liberals. While detained, he… More
Ashraf Fayadh
Fayadh, a poet and artist, was jailed on charges of apostasy for writing about humanistic themes in his poetry collection Instructions Within, which explores Fayadh’s experience as a Palestinian… More
Junaid Hafeez
Hafeez, a liberal academic, was arrested for blasphemy in 2013 and has been in solitary confinement since 2014. An Islamist group lodged the accusation against him to prevent his… More
Abdelkabir Al-Hor
Al-Hor, creator and editor of a news website that is often critical of the Moroccan government, was arrested in 2017 and sentenced to four years in prison in 2018… More
Maati Monjib
An advocate for an independent press, historian Monjib was detained on December 29, 2020 following a retaliatory investigation against him into alleged money laundering. A month later, he was… More