Dawit Isaac

Is Dawit Isaac still alive? A journalist, poet and naturalized Swedish citizen, he returned to serve “free Eritrea” and to launch Setit, a pro-reform newspaper. But since his arrest in September 2001, he has been subjected to a slow death in the burning hot containers used for holding prisoners in Eiraeiro, a detention centre in Northern Red Sea province. Held without a trial, without a lawyer and without the right to visits, like thousands of government opponents and dozens of other journalists, of whom at least four have died in detention, he is one the countless victims of Issayas Afewerki’s monstrous regime, which reigns with impunity. In the deafening silence surrounding Eritrea, hope of saving Isaac is slim. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights began examining his case in 2013.