Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi was imprisoned for publishing an open letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His pregnant wife and other bloggers who commented on the arrest were also imprisoned.
Saudi Arabia
Raif Badawi, Saudi Arabian writer and activist and the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals, has been convicted of crimes including "setting up a website that undermines general security" and "ridiculing Islamic religious figures." He was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes in 2013, then resentenced to 1000 lashes and ten years in prison plus a fine of 1 million riyal. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, asserted that Raif will not be able to survive the flogging.
Egypt
Several bloggers in Egypt are arrested for allegedly defaming the president Hosni Mubarak or expressing critical views about Islam. Blogger Kareem Amer has been convicted to four years of prison.
China
ordered to "maintain the initiative in opinion on the Internet and raise the level of guidance online," referring to censorship and ensuring online messages in China toe the party line. China is reported to have "an internet police force – reportedly numbering 30,000 – trawl websites and chat rooms, erasing anti-Communist comments and posting pro-government messages." However, the number of Internet police personnel was challenged by Chinese authorities. Amnesty International blamed several companies, including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!, of collusion with the Chinese authorities to restrict access to information over the Internet and identify cyber-dissidents by hiring "big mamas". It was reported that departments of provincial and municipal governments in mainland China began creating "teams of internet commentators, whose job is to guide discussion on public bulletin boards away from politically sensitive topics by posting opinions anonymously or under false names" in 2005. Applicants for the job were drawn mostly from the propaganda and police departments. Successful candidates have been offered classes in Marxism, propaganda techniques, and the Internet. "They are actually hiring staff to curse online," said Liu Di, a Chinese student who was arrested for posting her comments in blogs. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu objected to a question from foreign journalists regarding a cyber-dissident, stating that "there are no dissidents in China". Ai Weiwei believes that, by this statement, the government is effectively stating that: all dissidents are criminals, only criminals have dissenting views, anyone who believes China has dissidents is a criminal, and ultimately China does not have any dissidents because they are criminals.
Russia
In 2006 journalist Vladimir Rakhmankov published an article on the Internet where he named Vladimir Putin "the nation's phallic symbol". A regional court found Rakhmankov guilty of offending Vladimir Putin and fined him to a sum of 20,000 roubles. In June 2013 a criminal case was opened on opposition blogger Stanislav Kalinichenko for retweeting a photograph of a leaflet reading "Enough demonstrating—it's time to act!" signed by a group calling itself the First Resistance Detachment and calling for the destruction of corrupt officials' property. Kalinichenko was charged with Criminal Code 280, carrying a 4 years prison sentence. The human rights organizationMemorial has characterized the charges as politically motivated. In March 2014, on orders from the Attorney General, the government blocked the blog of opposition leaderAlexey Navalny on the grounds that it disseminated extremism. In December 2015 Facebook complied with an order from the Attorney General to block Russian users' access to an event page by organizers of an unsanctioned rally in support of the Navalny brothers. All reposts of the event disappeared from users' walls. In addition, the supervisory body Roskomnadzor ordered a Ukrainian news website to delete a story about the protest. In March 2014 historian Konstantin Zharinov was charged with advocating extremism, after using the "share with friends" VKontakte feature on a public appeal by the Ukrainian militant group Right Sector. Zharinov was placed under surveillance, and his participation in anti-war demonstrations and pickets in support of Alexey Navalny featured prominently in the investigation.
Asif Mohiuddin, a winner of The Bobs-Best of Online Activism award, was imprisoned by the Bangladesh government for posting "offensive comments about Islam and Mohammed". Deutsche Welle state "Asif's blog was one of the most read web pages in Bangladesh and is known for its strong criticism of religious fundamentalism and Bangladesh's 'anti-people politics International organisations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists have condemned the imprisonment of bloggers and the climate of fear for journalists. The head of Reporters without Borders Asia-Pacific commented on the murder of writer Avijit Roy noting "It is unacceptable for to spend so much time searching news outlets, arresting journalists, censoring news and investigating bloggers, when the many attacks on bloggers are still unpunished."
Vietnam
Nguyen Vu Binh was imprisoned for writing about violations of human rights, and Truong Quoc Huy was arrested for discussing political reforms in an Internet chat room. Nguyen Vu Binh was released in June 2007.
In January 2017, four bloggers known for their anti-religious and pro-democracy activism went missing. Altogether, their disappearances alarmed secular liberals involved in social activism in Pakistan.
US
Australian whistleblower, activist and founder of WikiLeaksJulian Assange who became to a dissident because of publishing secret documents that proved American war crimes in afghanistan and Iraq.
