Deniz Yücel

Deniz Yücel

Columnist Yücel was subjected to pre-trial detention--including solitary confinement and torture--and then indicted in 2018 with producing “terrorism propaganda,” and “inciting the public to hatred and enmity.” Now in… More

Erk Acarer

Acarer is a Turkish columnist and author who has been living in exile in Berlin since 2017. On July 7, 2021, he was attacked outside of his home by… More

Ali Bulaç

A former columnist for the shuttered Zaman newspaper, Bulaç was one of many journalists rounded up after the failed 2016 coup in Türkiye. He spent over a year in… More

Ermek Taichibekov

Initially detained in 2017 for pro-Russian comments online and released after serving less than 2 years of his sentence, online commentator Taichibekov was rearrested in September 2020. He was… More

Uladzimir Matskevich

Uladzimir Matskevich

Matskevich is a philosopher who was arrested in a home raid on August 4, 2021 and detained in restrictive conditions, justified by the authorities’ claims that he is “prone… More

Valeria Kostyugova

Valeria Kostyugova

Political analyst and writer Kostyugova is editor of the online community Our Opinion and its annual publication Belarusian Yearbook. In June 2021, she was detained in a home raid… More

Ales Bialacki

Ales Bialacki

Bialacki is a writer, literary critic, and head of human rights group Viasna. In July 2021, he was arrested on feigned tax evasion charges targeting his work to monitor… More

Alexander Feduta

Literary intellectual and PEN Belarus member Feduta was arrested in April 2021 in Moscow and quickly extradited to Belarus on “suspicion of committing a crime.” On September 5, 2022,… More

Andrzej Poczobut

Andrzej Poczobut

Belarusian-Polish political writer and minority rights activist Poczobut comments on politics in his blog and columns, for Polish newspapers, and has published a book on Lukashenka’s impact. He was… More

Eduard Palchys Jhon Silver

Eduard Palchys Jhon Silver

Writing under the pen name Jhon Silver, Palchys ran a website called 1863x where he published articles criticizing Belarusian and Russian authorities. He was jailed in 2016 for his… More