5 persecuted authors for Day of the Imprisoned Writer 2019

The renowned Mexican investigative journalist and activist has faced harassment, attacks and death threats for years. She was also illegally detained in 2005 after the release of a book looking into child prostitution networks. During an attack on her home in July 2019, her research materials were stolen and her dogs were killed. The incident forced her to go into exile.

Award-winning Sri Lankan writer Shakthika Sathkumara posted on Facebook one of his short stories that had indirect references to child abuse in a Buddhist temple. He was accused of inciting religious hatred. The writer already spent over 120 days in detention during the police investigation. He faces up to 10 years in prison if he's found guilty in a court decision planned for December.

Uganda has been cracking down on online dissent. A striking example of this is the case of academic, writer and activist Stella Nyanzi. In September 2018, she published a poem on Facebook that criticized the country's president and his mother. She subsequently was sentenced this August to 18 months in prison for "cyber harassment."

Nedim Turfent was arrested in May 2016 following his coverage of army clashes in a Kurdish area of Turkey. Charged with terrorism, he was sentenced to almost nine years in prison and had to spend nearly two years in solitary confinement. However, the reporter's trial was unfair; 19 witnesses later said they had been tortured into testifying against him.

A month before Egypt's presidential election, a song with lyrics written by Galal El-Behairy criticizing the country's government went viral. That led the Egyptian minister of culture to denounce a few days later the poet and his book, "The Finest Women on Earth." The lyricist was arrested and tortured a few days later. He is a serving a 3-year sentence in one of Egypt's most notorious prisons.