Prisoner Nr. 172, Bitweded Abraha, still behind bars in Eritrea

Prisoner Nr. 172, Bitweded Abraha, still behind bars in Eritrea #withoutjustcause #countdown

10 000 Eritrean political prisoners 20 years after independence, says Amnesty. Amnesty International said in a report that Eritrea's prisons are filled with thousands of political prisoners, locked up without ever being charged with a crime, many of whom are never heard from again. Those detained include government critics, journalists and people practising an unregistered religion, as well as people trying to leave the country or avoid indefinite conscription into national service.

"The government has systematically used arbitrary arrest and detention without charge to crush all opposition, to silence all dissent, and to punish anyone who refuses to comply with the repressive restrictions it places on people's lives," said Claire Beston, Amnesty International's Eritrea researcher, in a press release. "Twenty years on from the euphoric celebrations of independence, Eritrea is one of the most repressive, secretive and inaccessible countries in the world."

Amnesty International believes that at least 10,000 political prisoners have been imprisoned by the government of President Isaias Afewerki, who has ruled since the country's independence in 1993. With no known exception, not a single political prisoner has ever been charged with a crime or been tried, had access to a lawyer or been brought before a judge or a judicial officer to assess the legality and necessity of the detention.