Nassima al-Sada,
A campaigner for women’s freedom, walked free from jail in June 21. Nassima had been arrested in 2018 for peacefully defending human rights. While imprisoned the guards beat her and banned anyone from visiting – even her lawyer. Supporters worldwide wrote 777,611 letters, tweets and more. Nassima’s son, Mousa al-Sada, feels that international attention on his mother helped push her case to a verdict, after years of stagnation and aided in securing her release. Nassima is still subject to a travel ban, meaning she cannot leave Saudi Arabia for five years.
Yecenia Armenta,
She was imprisoned for 4 years, after being tortured in order to force a confession that she killed her husband. As part of Write 4 Rights 2015 over 300,000 actions were taken on her case urging the Mexican Government to drop the charges and release her. This activism helped shift public opinion and media coverage, and pressured the government; she was acquitted and released in March 2016.
Phyoe Phyoe Aung
A young human rights defender and Secretary General of one of Myanmar’s largest student unions. On March 10, 2015, she and 50 other students were arrested by police for their peaceful demonstrations against an education law they believe limits freedom of education. Phyoe Phyoe Aung was charged with a range of offenses including taking part in an unlawful assembly and inciting the public to commit offenses against the State. She faced up to nine years’ imprisonment and was a prisoner of conscience. She was freed on April 8, 2016.
Khaled Drareni
Spent 11 months in jail and became a symbol for much needed press freedom in Algeria. In March 2020, Khaled was arrested while covering a peaceful demonstration. He was charged with inciting an unarmed gathering and harming the integrity of the national territory and sentenced to three years in prison – all for simply doing his job as a journalist. Following continuous attention from the campaign, and mass mobilisation by activists, Khaled was released on 19 February 2021. Khaled is still facing charges. We will not stop until these charges are dropped.