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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
Filtered cases
HM-EG-2026-024
Under restriction
Hossam Bahgat
Hossam Bahgat is a journalist and human rights monitor whose investigative reporting has made him a recurring target of Egypt's security apparatus.…
Open case file
HM-XX-2026-029
Under restriction
Sultana Khaya
Sahrawi women's rights defender under de facto house arrest since November 2020. She has endured repeated sexual assaults, physical attacks, and forced…
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-EG-2026-020
Under restriction
Abdelrahman Tarek
Abdelrahman Tarek was arrested in September 2019 during a judicial observation session and has been held in arbitrary detention ever since, despite…
Hunger strike
Open case file
HM-DZ-2026-008
Under restriction
Faleh Hammoudi
Head of the Tlemcen office of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, convicted to three years in prison for…
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-DZ-2026-007
In forced exile
Zaki Hannache
Zaki Hannache documented arrests of protesters after Algeria's 2019 Hirak uprising. He was arrested in 2022, charged with terrorism-related offences, and held…
Medical urgency
Open case file
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-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-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-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