Eritrea: Writers detained for 5,000 days without trial

| June 15, 2015

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June 2, 2015 marked the 5,000th day since ten Eritrean writers and journalists were arrested in September 2001. No public charges or trials have been announced, and the journalists’ whereabouts are unknown.

The human rights’ NGO, PEN International, says these writers are being punished for expressing peaceful views in writing. Eritrean authorities have refused to state why the journalists have been detained or even whether they are alive or dead. President Isaias Afewerki has referred to the journalists as “spies” in the pay of the CIA.

Marian Botsford Fraser is the chairperson of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee. She says: “PEN has at least 21 Eritrean writers and journalists on its Case List … in Eritrean prisons. Their fate must be immediately clarified by the Eritrean authorities and, if still alive, they should be released immediately and unconditionally.”

To read the full article, go to: https://www.ifex.org/eritrea/2015/06/02/dawit_isaak/

Photo: Kalle Ahlsén