Free Maksim Znak, Gui Minhai, Galal El-Behairy, Freddy Antonio Quezada and the 12 Eritrean writers detained since 2001
They considered us totally buried.
But how can one just bury a plant?
Our greens broke persistent through bedrock, And the blue sky we finally found!
By Maksim Znak
The ugliness of this thing, war; When its spring arrives unwished-for; When its ravaging echoes knock at your door; It is then that war’s curse brews doom.
By Amanuel Asrat
21 March 2024: Today, on World Poetry Day, PEN International launches War, Censorship, and Persecution, its Case List 2023/2024, shining a light on five persecuted writers in dire need of help:
Belarus: Maksim Znak. Imprisoned; held incommunicado since February 2023.
China: Gui Minhai. Imprisoned; currently serving a 10-year prison sentence.
Egypt: Galal El-Behairy. Imprisoned; held in arbitrary detention since July 2021 after serving a three-year prison sentence for his poetry.
Eritrea: Collective case of Eritrean writers and journalists detained without trial; held incommunicado for 22 years.
Nicaragua: Freddy Antonio Quezada. Detained.
Join us in demanding justice and freedom for these brave voices. #FreeTheWriters #MaksimZnak #GuiMinhai #GalalElBehairy #EritreanWriters # FreddyAntonioQuezada #WorldPoetryDay
Against 1912 nights in which I only saw the moon once, and by chance
Against every dream that dies over time and joins all my wasted dreams.
By Galal El-Behairy
Poetry produces music, because things cannot be said [...] when two words that do not know each other, the poet makes them meet with astonishment and invites them to sing with us…
By Freddy Quezada
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TAKE ACTION
Advocacy
Please send appeals to the authorities of Belarus, urging them to:
Release Maksim Znak immediately and unconditionally;
End the incommunicado detention of Znak and ensure that, pending his release, he is held in conditions that meet international human rights standards for the treatment of prisoners, including by providing him access to adequate health care and regular communication with his family and lawyers.
Send appeals to:
Oleg Matkin
Role: Head of the Department for the Execution of Punishments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus
Email: pismo@din.gov.byAndrei Shved
Role: Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus
Email: info@prokuratura.gov.bySend copies to the Embassy of Belarus in your own country. Embassy addresses may be found here: https://mfa.gov.by/en/bilateral/belarus/?asd50
Please reach out to your Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic representatives in Belarus, calling on them to raise the case of Znak in bilateral fora.
OUTREACH
PEN members are encouraged to:
Publish articles and opinion pieces in your national or local press highlighting the case of Znak and the state of freedom of expression in Belarus;
Share information about Znak and your campaigning activities via social media.
Please keep PEN International informed of your activities. Messages can be sent to Aurélia Dondo, Head of Europe and Central Asia Region: Aurelia.dondo@pen-international.org
READ MORE ABOUT MAKSIM ZNAK’S CASE
Lawyer, academic, and writer Maksim Znak is serving a 10-year sentence in a medium-security penal colony on spurious grounds. Znak was the electoral campaign lawyer of opposition presidential candidates Viktar Babaryka and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and a member of the Coordination Council for the Transfer of Power, which called for the resignation of President Lukašenka following the disputed presidential election held in August 2020.
Maksim Znak was arrested by members of the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee of Belarus at Viktar Babaryka’s election headquarters on 9 September 2020, and placed in pre-trial detention. He was subsequently charged with ‘inciting actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus’, ‘conspiring to seize power by unconstitutional means’ and ‘creating an extremist formation’, and tried alongside Maryia Kalesnikava, who headed Viktar Babaryka’s campaign team. Their trial opened in Minsk on 4 August 2021 behind closed doors. They were both found guilty on 6 September 2021, with Znak receiving a 10-year sentence, and Kalesnikava 11 years in prison. Znak was added to the ’list of persons involved in extremist activities’ in March 2022, and to the ‘list of persons involved in terrorist activities’ in May 2022 (in Belarus, there are six different lists associated with ‘extremism’, which are used by the authorities to target dissenting voices). That same month, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for his immediate and unconditional release. Znak was last seen by his lawyer in January 2023. He has been held incommunicado since 9 February 2023.
Maksim Znak, born on 4 September 1981, is a lawyer, professor at the Law Faculty of the Belarusian State University, poet, and lyricist. While detained, Znak wrote The Zekameron: One hundred tales from behind bars and eyelashes, in which he poignantly details his new everyday life.
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TAKE ACTION
Advocacy
Please send appeals to the authorities of China, urging them to:
Release Gui Minhai immediately and unconditionally;
Ensure that, pending Gui Minhai’s release, he is held in conditions that meet international human rights standards for the treatment of prisoners, including by providing him access to adequate health care and regular communication with his family and lawyers.
Send appeals to:
Ambassador CUI Aimin
Role: Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Kingdom of Sweden
Email: political@chinaembassy.seAmbassador CHEN Xu
Role: Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and Other International Organizations in Switzerland
Email: chinamission_gva@mfa.gov.cnSend copies to the Embassy of China in your own country. Embassy addresses may be found here: https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjb_663304/zwjg_665342/2490_665344/
OUTREACH
PEN members are encouraged to:
Publish articles and opinion pieces in your national or local press highlighting the case of Gui Minhai and the state of freedom of expression in China;
Share information about Gui Minhai and your campaigning activities via social media.
Please keep PEN International informed of your activities. Messages can be sent to Ross Holder, Head of Asia/Pacific Region: Ross.Holder@pen-international.org
READ MORE ABOUT GUI MINHAI’S CASE
Gui Minhai is a poet, author, publisher, bookseller and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC) who is serving a 10-year prison sentence imposed after his conviction of national security charges on 24 February 2020.
Gui is one of five Hong Kong booksellers who were forcibly disappeared in late 2015. He was taken from his vacation home in Thailand by the PRC security services and was not seen in public until three months later, when PRC state media aired a forced confession video where Gui Minhai claimed he had voluntarily returned to China to turn himself for a 2003 traffic offence. Briefly released while under continued surveillance in late 2017, Gui was subsequently detained by plain clothes police officers on 20 January 2018 whilst in the company of two Swedish diplomats on his way to Beijing for medical testing, after showing symptoms of a neurodegenerative disease.
Gui Minhai, born on 5 May 1964, was the owner of Mighty Current Media and joint owner of its retail arm, Causeway Bay Books. Several poems written by Gui during his initial detention were published in 2020 as a poetry collection titled, I draw a door on the wall with my finger (2020). In 2019, Gui Minhai was awarded PEN Sweden’s Tucholsky Prize.
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TAKE ACTION
Advocacy
Please send appeals to the Egyptian authorities, urging them to:
Release Galal El-Behairy immediately and unconditionally and drop all charges against him;
Pending his release, ensure his access to adequate medical care and psychological support.
Send appeals to:
Mohamed Shawqi Ayyad
Role: Public Prosecutor
Address: Mohamed Shawky Ayyad, Office of the Public Prosecutor, Madinat al-Rehab, Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt
Fax: +202 2577 4716
Email: m.office@ppo.gov.eg
Twitter: @EgyptianPPO
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ppo.gov.egSend copies to the Egyptian embassies in your own country. Embassy addresses may be found here: https://www.egyptembassy.org/location/uk/
Please reach out to your Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic representatives in Egypt, calling on them to raise the case of El-Behairy in bilateral fora.
OUTREACH
PEN members are encouraged to:
Publish articles and opinion pieces in your national or local press highlighting the case of Galal El-Behairy and the state of freedom of expression in Egypt.
Share information about El-Behairy and your campaigning activities via social media.
Please keep PEN International informed of your activities. Messages can be sent to Mina Thabet, Head of Middle East and North Africa Region: Mina.Thabet@pen-international.org
READ MORE ABOUT GALAL EL-BEHAIRY’S CASE
Galal El-Behairy, born on 27 June 1990, is an Egyptian poet and lyricist known for his criticism of the authorities. Arrested in March 2018, he continued to be held without charge or trial despite serving a three-year unjust sentence in July 2021. He has reportedly been beaten and tortured in detention.
El-Behairy was arrested on 5 March 2018 at Cairo International Airport on his return from travels abroad. He initially faced charges of ‘joining a terrorist group’, ‘disseminating false news’, and ‘insulting the President’ for lyrics he had written for the song Balaha, performed, and disseminated online by exiled Egyptian singer Ramy Essam. The song heavily criticised President Sisi and was deemed insulting to the president. This case was eventually dropped, but he was sentenced to three years in prison in a separate case for allegedly ‘disseminating false news and rumours’ and ‘insulting the Egyptian army’ in his unpublished poetry collection, The Finest Women on Earth.
In July 2021, after his sentence expired, he was subjected to enforced disappearance for three weeks before being freshly charged with ‘disseminating false news’ and ‘joining a terrorist group’ by the Supreme State Security Prosecution in case number 2000/2021 SSSP. Along with other detainees, he joined a collective hunger strike for several weeks in February 2022 to protest against their arbitrary detention. On 5 March 2023, five years after his arbitrary detention began, El-Behairy started a hunger strike, which he later escalated on 1 June 2023, refusing to take fluids and medicines in protest against his continued detention. PEN International learned that he was forced to suspend his hunger strike on 6 June 2023 due to his declining health.
On 5 September 2023, El-Behairy exceeded the maximum legal limit of pre-trial detention without a trial, which should have led to his release. However, Egyptian authorities continue to detain him arbitrarily. In protest against his indefinite detention, El-Behairy resumed his hunger strike on 5 September and later attempted to commit suicide four days after resuming his hunger strike after losing hope that he would ever be released. In December 2023, PEN International learned that prison authorities had confiscated all of El-Behairy’s reading and writing materials.
El-Behairy’s family has informed PEN International that his health has significantly deteriorated due to his imprisonment, poor prison conditions, lack of adequate medical care, and prolonged hunger strikes. He suffers from high blood pressure, joint pain and heart problems. His mental health has severely deteriorated in recent years.
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TAKE ACTION
Advocacy
Please send appeals to the authorities of Eritrea, urging them to:
Reveal the whereabouts and fate of all detained writers, journalists, media workers, artists, and government critics.
Immediately and unconditionally release all arbitrarily detained and disappeared journalists, writers, artists, and government critics and provide all those still alive with independent medical assessments, adequate medical treatment, and comprehensive redress as free persons.
Send appeals to:
H.E. Isaias Afewerki
Role: President of Eritrea
Address: H.E. Isaias Afewerki, Office of the President, P. O. Box 257, Asmara, Eritrea
Fax: + 2911 125123
E-mail: (through the Eritrean Permanent Mission to the United Nation) eritrea@un.intand through:
Hon. Yemane Gebremeskel
Role: Minister of Information
Address: P.O. Box 242, Asmara, Eritrea
Tel: +291 124 847
X: @haweltiOUTREACH
PEN members are encouraged to:
Spread the word about the case of the detained Eritrean writers and journalists through opinion articles in your local and national press.
Encourage others in your network to write letters and e-mails calling for their immediate and unconditional release.
Share information about the detainees and your campaigning activities via social media.
Please keep PEN International informed of your activities. Messages can be sent to Nduko o’Matigere, Head of Africa Region: Nduko.oMatigere@pen-international.org
READ MORE ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE CASE OF ERITREAN WRITERS AND JOURNALISTS DETAINED WITHOUT TRIAL
September 2023 marked 22 years of the incommunicado detention without trial of a group of Eritrean journalists and writers, including Dawit ISAAK; Amanuel ASRAT; Said Idris ‘ABU ARE’; Temesegen GHEBREYESUS; Methanie HAILE; Fessehaye ‘Joshua’ YOHANNES; Yousif Mohammed ALI; Seyoum TSEHAYE; Dawit HABTEMICHAEL; Said ABDELKADIR; Sahle ‘Wedi-ltay’ TSEFEZAB; and Matheos HABTEAB.
They were arbitrarily arrested between September and October 2001, after Eritrean authorities launched a massive crackdown on regime critics. Authorities also shut down all independent newspapers, including the weeklies Meqaleh, Setit, Tsigenay, Zemen, Wintana and Admas, for publishing the G-15 statement and conducting related interviews. More than 10 journalists - among them writers associated with the banned media outlets were rounded up by security forces and detained without trial for publishing an open letter by a group of politicians that had denounced President Isais Afwerki’s abuse of power and called for peaceful democratic reforms. Along with the dissenting politicians, the journalists and writers have been detained without trial and held incommunicado and without trial for the last 22 years. There have been unverified reports that several of them have since died in custody due to ill-treatment and neglect.
Eritrean authorities have ignored all calls for justice for the detainees made by human rights organizations as well as human rights mechanisms of the African Union and the UN.
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TAKE ACTION
Advocacy
Please send appeals to the authorities of Nicaragua, urging them to:
Release Freddy Quezada immediately and end the persecution and arbitrary detention of journalists, writers, and academics;
Pending Quezada’s release, respect international human rights standards for the treatment of prisoners, including by providing him access to adequate health care and regular communication with his family and lawyers.
Send appeals to:
Cra. María Amelia Coronel Kinloch
Role: Minister of the Interior
Email: relacionespublicas@mint.gob.niDenis Ronaldo Moncada Colindres
Role: Minister of Foreign Affairs
Email: DMoncada@cancilleria.gob.ni
mcolindres2811@yahoo.com.mxSend copies to the Embassy of Nicaragua in your own country. Embassy addresses may be found here: https://www.embassypages.com/nicaragua_es
Please reach out to your Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic representatives, calling on them to raise the case of Quezada in bilateral fora.
OUTREACH
PEN members are encouraged to:
Publish articles and opinion pieces in your national or local press highlighting the case of Quezada and the state of freedom of expression in Nicaragua;
Share information about Quezada and your campaigning activities via social media.
Please keep PEN International informed of your activities. Messages can be sent to Alicia Quiñones, Head of The Americas Region: Alicia.Quinones@pen-international.org
READ MORE ABOUT FREDDY QUEZADA
Writer, philosopher and academic Freddy Quezada is being held without access to legal representation or being informed of the reasons for his detention. According to public reports and information received by PEN International, Quezada was arrested at his home on 29 November 2023. The police did not inform the family of his whereabouts until five days after he was arrested. His family members have not had any contact with Quezada since then.
On 5 December 2023, Quezada was transferred to the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System in Tipitapa, known as ‘La Modelo’. The family members have not had access to any official information as to Quezada’s legal status. According to partial information provided by the authorities on the case, Quezada was convicted on 24 January 2024 for ‘incitement to hatred’ in a trial held via zoom. The sentence has not been handed down.
Quezada was arrested hours after writing social media posts (under the pseudonym ‘Uliteo’) that were critical of the Nicaraguan government. In one of his last articles before he was detained, Quezada referred to the government as a ‘dictatorship’ and criticised its public narrative around its detention of a prominent bishop who is a vocal critic of the government. On 27 December 2023, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights granted Freddy Quezada precautionary measures.
In 2018, Quezada is said to have been dismissed from his academic role at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) due to his outspoken criticism of the Nicaraguan government’s violent repression of student protests.
Freddy Quezada is a sociologist, academic and guide for several generations of university students. Author of books such as El Pensamiento Contemporáneo and Decolonialidad y Emancipación Como Jazz Epistémico.
Note to editors
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