PEN America champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. The bedrock work of the global PEN network is advocacy and assistance on behalf of individuals persecuted for their use of the written word or other forms of expression. PEN America’s Writers at Risk Database is a searchable catalog of the writers, journalists, academics, public intellectuals and others under threat around the world. The database includes historical cases PEN America has worked on from 1987 onwards; non-active cases are color-coded black. PEN America is grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for support that enabled the establishment of the Writers at Risk Database and to PEN International for their collaboration in assembling this database.
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Al-Haidar was arrested without charge in a wave of arrests in April 2019. While in detention, he has been denied access to a lawyer. He is the son of a prominent Saudi feminist facing trial, who was released from prison two weeks before he was detained. He was conditionally released…
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In January 2018, Al-Shehi, a noted anti-corruption columnist critical of the government, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for “insulting the royal court.” He was released from prison in May 2020 in ill-health, and died on July 19, 2020 of apparent COVID-19 related complications.
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Al-Jabali ran a Facebook page called “Minister of Hypertension and Diabetes” in which he posted political opinions. He was detained for several Facebook posts in which he called the President a “dog” and a “coup maker” and was sentenced to 1 year in jail on October 13, 2021. In November…
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Activist Al-Khalidi was sentenced in absentia to 5 years of imprisonment for his tweets while he was studying in Qatar. He was pardoned in January 2023, but sentenced again in May for his online postings. He was sentenced to 3 years in September and 5 in November for false news…
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A former PEN America president, Rushdie is a well-known novelist who has written over 20 books. In 1989, he was the target of a fatwa issued by the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini after he wrote The Satanic Verses, and spent a decade in hiding. On August 12, 2022, Rushdie…
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Kurdish rapper Yasin was abducted by security forces in October 2022 after releasing music supporting the Mahsa Amini protests. He was charged with “enmity against God,” a crime carrying the death sentence. He was tortured in prison, attempting suicide in December 2022. His appeal was accepted in the same month.…
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Activist Noruz-Moradi has been in and out of prison since 2018; in 2020, she was diagnosed with breast cancer while in jail, and was sent on medical leave with bail in 2021. Two years later, she was rearrested and charged with “propaganda against the regime” for her commentary on Telegram.…
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Armed, masked men who identified themselves as police officers kidnapped comedian and satirist Kureya (known as Gonyeti) on August 21, 2019. They abused her in an unknown location, and rebuked her for mocking the government. She was found 3 hours later and went into hiding.
Writers at Risk Database Key:
STATUS box that is red: Active case
STATUS box that is black: Inactive case
PEN America is deeply grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for its generous support of the Freedom to Write Index and Writers at Risk Database.
PEN America thanks the PEN International Secretariat and the Writers in Prison Committee for their extensive contributions to and collaboration on compiling the cases included in this database.