During a July 2002 fact-finding mission to the capital, Asmara, CPJ delegates confirmed that Seyoum, a writer and general manager at the banned private weekly Setit, was arrested while trying to cross Eritrea’s border with Sudan. The driver of the minivan carrying Seyoum and others was also arrested, after border patrol agents opened fire on his vehicle, chased it, and captured some of its passengers. At least one of the fugitives, an Eritrean journalist who chose to remain anonymous, survived the incident and reached the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, days later.
Seyoum, a hero of Eritrea’s 30-year independence war against Ethiopia, is being held in solitary confinement at the Hadish Maaskar detention facility near the town of Gyrmayka on the border with Sudan, according to CPJ sources in Eritrea.