Dawit Isaak is an Eritrean-Swedish journalist, playwright and poet. He returned to Eritrea in the mid-90s to serve “free Eritrea” soon after the independence and participated in the launch of 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 a dozen 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. He is the longest-detained journalist in the world.

Solidarity address

Dawit Isaak Eiraeiro prison,
secret detention center located near the village of Gahtelay,
in the Northern Red Sea Region,
Eritrea

Information provided by Reporters Without Borders