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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-XX-2026-019
Sentenced
Mohamed Al-Roken
Mohamed Al-Roken is a human rights lawyer who defended activists and critics of the UAE government. Arrested in 2012, he completed a…
Open case file
HM-SD-2026-005
Detained
Abdelwahab Ahmed Mohamed Hashem “Bob”
Abdelwahab Ahmed Mohamed Hashem—known to friends and colleagues as Bob—leads the Workers' Coordination Committee in North Kordofan, advocating for public employees amid…
Open case file
HM-SD-2026-004
Released
Montaser Abdullah
Montaser Abdullah is a Sudanese lawyer who represented survivors of gender-based violence and defended members of the Tagadom political coalition. He was…
Open case file
HM-SD-2026-003
Detained
Al-Fadil Ismail
Al-Fadil Ismail volunteers with the Emergency Response Room in Zalingei, Darfur, and coordinates aid in his community. He was arrested from his…
Open case file
HM-YE-2026-001
Under restriction
Abdul Majid Sabra
Abdul Majid Sabra is a lawyer who has defended journalists, political activists, and others detained for exercising fundamental rights in Yemen. He…
Hunger strike
Open case file
HM-EG-2020-002
Disappeared
Ahmed Amasha
Ahmed Amasha is a veterinarian, trade unionist, and co-founder of the League for Families of the Disappeared. He has been arrested twice,…
Day 2,196 · since 2020-06-01
HM-BH-2021-001
Imprisoned
Ahmed Jaafar
Ahmed Jaafar is a Bahraini labour activist serving life imprisonment after Serbia forcibly extradited him in January 2022 despite a binding European…
Day 1,676 · since 2021-11-03
HM-EG-2020-001
Detained
Ahmed Al-Tohamy
Ahmed Al-Tohamy is a political science scholar whose research has been recognized internationally. He was arrested from his home in Cairo in…
Day 2,194 · since 2020-06-03
HM-EG-2024-001
Detained
Abdulrahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi
A dual Egyptian-Turkish poet arrested at the Lebanon-Syria border, forcibly extradited to the UAE, and held incommunicado since January 2025 after publishing…
Day 525 · since 2024-12-28
HM-BH-2011-001
Imprisoned
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja
Co-founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, sentenced to life in prison after the 2011 uprising. Tortured, sexually assaulted, and held…
Hunger strike
Day 5,635 · since 2011-01-01
HM-TN-2024-001
Detained
Abdallah Saïd
Abdallah Saïd was arrested in Tunisia on 12 November 2024 and charged with money laundering, forming a criminal association, and undermining state…
Day 571 · since 2024-11-12
HM-JO-2023-001
Sentenced
Ayman Sanduka
Ayman Sanduka is a mathematics professor and political activist in Jordan. He was arrested in December 2023 over a Facebook post criticizing…
Day 898 · since 2023-12-21