Oleh Halaziuk
Radio Free Europe columnist Halaziuk was detained by Russian-backed separatists from August 2017 through December 2019. Since the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine, he had covered everyday living conditions… More
Mykola Semena
Police arrested opinion writer and reporter Semana 7 months after he wrote an article in 2015 denouncing Russia’s annexation of Crimea. On conditional release post-arrest, he received a 2… More
Tayseer Al-Najjar
On December 13, 2015, Al-Najjar, a Jordanian national, was arrested by authorities in connection with a Facebook post in which he criticized Israel and the UAE. On February 12,… More
Muhammad Bekjanov
A prominent journalist and advocate for democracy in the post-Soviet era, Bekjanov was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in 1999 when then-president Karimov blamed explosions in Tashkent on Erk,… More
Ayşe Düzkan
On June 11, 2019, Düzkan was released after serving 18 months in Bakırköy prison in Istanbul. She was originally imprisoned in January 2018 on terrorism charges for her work… More
Edip Polat
A Kurdish writer, Polat has been jailed three times for writing in support of Kurdish self-determination, which authorities deemed to be “separatist propaganda,” even though many of his works… More
Eşber Yağmurdereli
Blind human rights activist Yağmurdereli has spent nearly 20 years in prison on various charges related to comments about Turkey's human rights abuses. Most recently, he was arrested in… More
Rakhim Esenov
In February 2004, Esenov was charged with “inciting social, national, and religious hatred using the mass media” for statements made by characters in his novel, Ventsenosny Skitalets (The Crowned… More
Fikret Başkaya
Başkaya, an academic and author of several books on topics including socialism, politics, and corruption in Turkey, was arrested in November 2017 on the basis of an article he… More