Dawit Isaak could be dead
The Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak has been moved from the prison in Eritrea, says journalist Lars Adaktusson on Radio 1. Several people with insight fear that Isaak is dead.
The information has not been confirmed officially and it is also unclear where Dawit Isaak has been taken. Mehari Abraham, exiled Eritrean debater and journalist with TV-Zete in Stockholm, says that there is information that points to Dawit Isaak possibly being dead.
- We have been given information that he is no longer in his cell. He has been moved, or he is no more, Mehari Abraham tells Aftonbladet.
The sources who have told him that Isaak is no longer in the prison have been able to confirm deaths in the prison in fifteen earlier cases. Abraham is to have received this information during the October.
- It is very credible information according to my experience. He is not there in the prison.
The MP Arhe Hamednaca (social democrat), with roots in Eritrea, is also worried.
On Radio 1 he says that he was given information about Dawit Isaak two months ago.
- Some have called me. A high-ranking person working for an organisation with international contacts called me and said that "we have information, we have head that Dawit is no longer alive", he says.
He is not to have had this information confirmed.
- Men vi känner till hur den här regimen agerar. Ingen av dem som är toppolitiker eller regimkritiker har kommit levande från de här fängelserna, säger han i Lars Adaktussons program.
UD bekräftar inte
- But we know how this regime works. No one who is a top-politician or critic of the regime has come out of these prisons alive, he says on Lars Adaktussons program.
On the Swedish department of foreign affairs there have been no confirmations.
Anders Jörle, public relations officer.
- I have no ability to comment on it, we have no such information here. There has been information like this before.
Do you know if he has been moved from the prison?
- No, I personally do not know about this. We are seeing if there is any internal information about this.
Dawit Isaaks family have not been notified.
- We haven't heard anything, says Bethlehem Isaak to Aftonbladet.
Jesper Bengtsson at Reporters sans frontières says to Aftonbladet that he wants the department of foreign affairs to increase the pressure on Eritrea.
How do you look at the information that Dawit Isaak might be dead?
- It is extremely worrying, but we do not know what it means. There have been no confirmations regarding his fate in the last six years. All of us who have been working with this have been aware that things have happened to him that we do not know.
How does this change your work to free Dawit Isaak?
- It doesn't change anything right now, we still have to assume that he is alive and can be freed. Basically, it doesn't change anything even if it is very worrying, says Bengtsson.
source: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article13848271.ab
ETA: there are now people saying that these reports are old and that the regime might be spreading misinformation to weaken the criticism against it
The information has not been confirmed officially and it is also unclear where Dawit Isaak has been taken. Mehari Abraham, exiled Eritrean debater and journalist with TV-Zete in Stockholm, says that there is information that points to Dawit Isaak possibly being dead.
- We have been given information that he is no longer in his cell. He has been moved, or he is no more, Mehari Abraham tells Aftonbladet.
The sources who have told him that Isaak is no longer in the prison have been able to confirm deaths in the prison in fifteen earlier cases. Abraham is to have received this information during the October.
- It is very credible information according to my experience. He is not there in the prison.
The MP Arhe Hamednaca (social democrat), with roots in Eritrea, is also worried.
On Radio 1 he says that he was given information about Dawit Isaak two months ago.
- Some have called me. A high-ranking person working for an organisation with international contacts called me and said that "we have information, we have head that Dawit is no longer alive", he says.
He is not to have had this information confirmed.
- Men vi känner till hur den här regimen agerar. Ingen av dem som är toppolitiker eller regimkritiker har kommit levande från de här fängelserna, säger han i Lars Adaktussons program.
UD bekräftar inte
- But we know how this regime works. No one who is a top-politician or critic of the regime has come out of these prisons alive, he says on Lars Adaktussons program.
On the Swedish department of foreign affairs there have been no confirmations.
Anders Jörle, public relations officer.
- I have no ability to comment on it, we have no such information here. There has been information like this before.
Do you know if he has been moved from the prison?
- No, I personally do not know about this. We are seeing if there is any internal information about this.
Dawit Isaaks family have not been notified.
- We haven't heard anything, says Bethlehem Isaak to Aftonbladet.
Jesper Bengtsson at Reporters sans frontières says to Aftonbladet that he wants the department of foreign affairs to increase the pressure on Eritrea.
How do you look at the information that Dawit Isaak might be dead?
- It is extremely worrying, but we do not know what it means. There have been no confirmations regarding his fate in the last six years. All of us who have been working with this have been aware that things have happened to him that we do not know.
How does this change your work to free Dawit Isaak?
- It doesn't change anything right now, we still have to assume that he is alive and can be freed. Basically, it doesn't change anything even if it is very worrying, says Bengtsson.
source: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article13848271.ab
ETA: there are now people saying that these reports are old and that the regime might be spreading misinformation to weaken the criticism against it