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Living Archive
Defenders.
An open record of human rights defenders across the Middle East and North Africa. Every entry is a case file — dated, sourced, and kept current.
173
Records on
the open archive
87
Currently held
detained · sentenced · on trial
57
In exile or under
transnational repression
11
In memoriam
killed for their work
The Record
Released
HM-EG-2026-027
Released
Ramy Kamel
Egyptian Coptic Christian human rights defender released in January 2022 after more than two years of pre-trial detention. Charges in Case 1475/2019…
Medical urgency
Arrested 2019
HM-EG-2026-023
Released
Patrick George Zaki
A researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, he was arrested in 2020 and convicted in 2023 for an article on…
Open case file
HM-EG-2026-021
Released
Mohamed El-Baqer
Lawyer and director of the Adalah Center for Rights and Freedoms, which provides legal aid to political detainees in Egypt. Detained for…
Open case file
HM-SD-2026-017
Released
Ameira Osman Hamid
Ameira Osman Hamid, an engineer and women's rights defender, was arrested from her home in January 2022 by plain-clothed security officers weeks…
Open case file
HM-SA-2026-002
Released
Raif Badawi
Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger and co-founder of Free Saudi Liberals, served ten years in prison for posts about free speech and…
Hunger strike
Open case file
HM-SA-2026-001
Released
Mohammed Fahd Al-Qahtani
Saudi economist and co-founder of ACPRA, jailed in 2013 on a 10-year sentence. Forcibly disappeared for two years after his term expired…
Arrested 2012
HM-EG-2026-019
Released
Ibrahim Ezz El-Din
An engineer who documented forced evictions, Ibrahim Ezz El-Din was arrested in June 2019, disappeared for 167 days, then held in pre-trial…
Open case file
HM-SD-2026-015
Released
Yasir Mirghani
Yasir Mirghani, a pharmacist who leads a Sudanese consumer-rights organization, was arrested in April 2023 on embezzlement charges tied to decade-old EU…
Open case file
HM-IQ-2026-006
Released
Jassim Al-Asadi
Jassim Al-Asadi, Iraq's leading expert on the southern marshlands, was kidnapped near Baghdad by an unknown armed group, tortured for fifteen days,…
Open case file
HM-TN-2026-008
Released
Saif Ayedi
Saif Ayedi was arrested by plainclothes police in October 2022 after attending a press conference on police violence. He was released two…
Open case file
HM-EG-2026-017
Released
Haytham Mohamadeen
Haytham Mohamadeen is a labour lawyer who spent over four years in preventive detention on terrorism-related charges. He was arrested in 2018,…
Open case file
HM-MA-2026-006
Released
Rida Benotmane
Rida Benotmane is a journalist, author, and member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights. He served eighteen months in Laarjat 1…
Open case file