Jailed for 20 years in Eritrea, Africa’s most censored country

Dawit Isaak was born on 27 October 1964 and grew up in Asmara, which was then part of the Ethiopian Empire, where his parents ran a small Italian deli.

Isaak started writing and directing plays while he was still at school. He later wrote several novels.

In 1985 he fled the Eritrean War of Independence (1961-1991) and settled in Lerum, outside Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden and worked as a cleaner. He gained Swedish citizenship in 1992.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), throughout this time, Isaak participated in the Eritrean diaspora movement, where “dreams of a free and democratic Eritrea thrive”.

In a report published by Unesco, his brother Esayas said: “I have few early childhood memories of Dawit since he is 10 years older than me, but when I was a teenager, he was my Tigrinya language teacher here in Sweden. He used to tell me over and over: ‘Don’t forget your language, your country, your roots.’”

When Eritrea became independent in 1993, Isaak returned to Asmara and married Sofia.

They had three children, Yorun, Betlehem and Danait. Betlehem later wrote My Life Without You, a book about her father whom she has not seen for 20 years.

Isaak continued to write plays and set up a children’s theatre group and when the country issued a new law that permitted independent newspaper ownership, he cofounded Eritrea’s first independent newspaper, Setit.

According to the Free Dawit campaign, Isaak’s motto is: “‘If you have the opportunity to write, do it.’ To Dawit, all news is of importance, anything from large issues like war to local incidents, and needs to be shared with the public.”

In 1998, just five years after Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia, a border war broke out between the two countries. In

2000, Isaak relocated his family to Gothenburg but returned to Asmara in April 2001, despite the political instability.

He reported on the growing democracy movement and the criticism of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. Setit also published an open letter to the president.

All independent newspapers were then banned and Isaak was arrested on 23 September 2001 and jailed along with other politicians and journalists.

In 2019, the Committee to Protect Journalists listed Eritrea as the world’s most censored country.

With the exception of a few days in 2005, he has been imprisoned ever since. No formal charges have ever been brought against him, he has not been granted a trial and Swedish diplomats have not been allowed to meet him. Nine foreign ministers have tried to secure his release. All have failed.

Over the years, the Swedish ministry for foreign affairs has received harsh criticism, including from RSF in Sweden, for not doing enough to get him released. When he was freed on November 19 2005 for health reasons, the ministry was again criticised for having no plan to get him out of Eritrea. Instead, he was rearrested two days later.

A portrait of Isaak has become a global symbol in the fight for press freedom and the freedom of expression. He has been given the Freedom of the Press award by RSF’S Swedish chapter, the Unesco Freedom of the Press award and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, among others. He has been named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, which has called for his unconditional release. Yet the battle for his liberty continues in a country that consistently rates one of the worst in the world in terms of individual freedoms. — Leizl Eykelhof