Dawit Isaak is alive.
It says Eritrea’s Foreign Minister Osman Saleh in an exclusive interview with French radio RFI, adding that it is the Eritrean government that decides when he will stand trial.
Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak has been imprisoned without trial in Eritrea since 23 september 2001. He was arrested along with several other activists and journalists who called for democratic reforms in Eritrea.
According to the Eritrean Government, he is in custody for crimes against national security, and he was considered a traitor.
Read also: Eritrea: the dictatorship that want out of the cold
Dawit Isaak has not been charged and the government in Eritrea allows no one to meet him.
the signs of life from him have been few in recent years. 2005 reported his release, but he should have been arrested a few days later.
But in an interview with the French radio station RFI, which aired on Monday, now announces the Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh to Dawit Isaak and other political prisoners lives.
It’s the radio station journalist Anthony Lattier interviewing Osman Saleh, when he visits Paris.
O According to the UN apprehended people routinely incarcerated, tortured or murdered. How many prisons have you in Eritrea?
– We have no jails. This UN commission has never been in Eritrea.
O But they’re not supposed visa?
– We will not give them visas because that it is related to foreign policy. We have a good relationship with the UN and the EU. It is enough.
O In 2001 arrested many reformers, journalists and soldiers, and detained and disappeared. How many of them are alive today?
– All of them live.
O Among them were Petros Solomon, former Foreign Minister, as you are. Is he alive?
– He lives, I know that.
O Will there be a trial?
– Yes, the government is responsible for the prisoners’ safety, and they are well taken care of.
O Dawit Isaak is a journalist, and even a prisoner. Is he alive?
– He lives.
O Will he be tried?
– Obviously, he will get his time (on the right), at any time when the government decides, with justice.
O So it is the government that decides when it will be a trial? There is no independent legal system?
– We have an independent judicial system, but this is about political prisoners, and then it is the government that takes care of them.
O Osman Saleh, 25 years after the independence of Eritrea accused you of carrying out crimes against humanity. People fleeing your country, which is one of the world’s poorest. Would you agree that your revolution has failed?
– Eritrea is a country in development. There is nothing unsuccessfully country. We grow economically, in two to three years, Eritrea, have developed very good economist.
Esayas Isaak is the brother of Dawit. He does not think the interview gives little hope.
– You can not detain someone for 15 years and say “he is alive”. Show us that He lives, says Esayas Isaak.
He also says that Foreign Minister Osman Saleh has no real power, which instead are concentrated with President Isaias Afwerki.
– That is a bit sails by the wind, how they feel about talking to the outside world, said Esayas Isaak.
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