Dawit Isaak, Swedish-Eritrean co-owner of the newspaper Setit, was arrested on September 23, 2001. He was one of about 13 journalists taken into custody in September and October 2001 in a government crackdown on the independent press.
Like most of those arrested, Dawit’s whereabouts, health, and legal status remain unknown as the Eritrean government has repeatedly failed to provide credible answers to questions about imprisoned journalists or to allow visits from family or lawyers.
Authorities initially detained the journalists at a police station in the capital, Asmara, where they began a hunger strike on March 31, 2002, and smuggled a message out of jail demanding due process. The government responded by transferring them to secret locations without bringing them before a court or publicly registering charges. Several people familiar with the situation told CPJ that the journalists were confined at the northeastern Eiraeiro prison camp or Adi Abeito military prison near Asmara.
In April 2002, Dawit was reportedly hospitalized because of torture. According to his brother, Esayas Isaak, he was released on November 19, 2005, for medical reasons but was rearrested two days later.
Dawit was held in solitary confinement in Eiraeiro prison, according to Dawit’s legal representatives, free speech organization PEN Eritrea and a purported former Eritrean prison guard, Eyob Bahta Habtemariam, who said at least four journalists were detained there.
Two U.N. special rapporteurs said in a 2021 joint statement that they had received information from a “credible source” that Dawit was alive in Eiraeiro prison as of September 2020.
Over the years, Eritrean officials have offered vague and inconsistent explanations for the arrests — accusing journalists of involvement in anti-state conspiracies in connection with foreign intelligence, skirting military service, and violating press regulations.
Meanwhile, shreds of often unverifiable, second- or third-hand information smuggled out by people fleeing into exile suggested that seven of the journalists arrested in 2001 have died in custody.
When asked about Dawit’s crime in a 2009 interview, President Isaias Afwerki said, "I don’t know," before asserting that the journalist had made "a big mistake," without offering details. The president added, "We will not have any trial, and we will not free him."
In 2010, Yemane Gebreab, a senior presidential adviser, said in an interview that Dawit was being held for "very serious crimes regarding Eritrea’s national security and survival as an independent state."
In a 2016 interview about the journalists arrested in 2001, Eritrean Foreign Affairs Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed said "all of them are alive" and "in good hands" and would face trial "when the government decides."
In 2016, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights “strongly urged” Eritrea to release or provide a “speedy and fair trial” to Dawit and other journalists detained since 2001, grant them access to their families and lawyers, and pay compensation for their detention.
In 2018, Paulos Netabay, director of the state-owned Eritrean News Agency, told CPJ that the journalists’ arrest in 2001 was connected to “acts of subversion and treason by some former politicians” and that the cases had been “submitted and decided by the National Assembly.”
In a March 2023 opinion responding to a 2022 complaint by CPJ and nine other human rights organizations and lawyers, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Dawit’s 22-year pre-trial detention lacked legal basis and was “unacceptably long and constitutes an egregious violation” of his rights. The U.N. said that Eritrea failed to respond to allegations that Dawit was ill-treated and tortured and urged the government to release Dawit immediately, investigate the circumstances of his detention, and pay compensation.
In a May 2024 report, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea, Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, expressed concern about prolonged, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances and said that the Eritreans arrested in 2001 were the “longest-detained journalists in the world,” imprisoned for almost 23 years without charges or trial.
In October 2024, Swedish prosecutors began investigating Afwerki and other officials for crimes against humanity in connection to Dawit’s case, following complaints filed by the Swedish section of the international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders.
In November 2024, Dawit was awarded Sweden’s Edelstam Prize for exceptional courage in defending human rights.
As of late 2024, CPJ had yet to receive any replies to emails requesting comment from information minister Yemane Ghebremeskel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the Eritrean Embassy in Sweden.