Nedim Türfent

In November 2022 we welcomed the release of reporter and poet Nedim Türfent, after over 2400 days behind bars. After reporting on Turkish police brutality, Nedim was imprisoned on trumped-up terrorism charges following an unfair trial, during which scores of witnesses said they had been tortured into testifying against him. Arrested in May 2016, Nedim spent almost two years in solitary confinement in harrowing conditions before even facing trial. He was sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison in December 2017. Determined to keep writing, despite multiple failed appeals, he started composing poetry in prison.

PEN International launched a solidarity campaign with Nedim Türfent in December 2018. In 2019 hundreds of members from 25 PEN Centres, signed a global appeal calling for his immediate and unconditional release. We featured his case during the Day of the Imprisoned Writer and World Poetry Day, with one of his poems translated into 18 languages. In 2020, we co-organised an advocacy campaign to mark the 1500 days Nedim had spent behind bars, and supported another appeal in 2021 when his imprisonment passed 2000 days. 

Nedim Türfent is an honorary member of English PEN and PEN Melbourne.