Manifesto in support of Dawit Isaak

On Friday the 23 of September, exactly ten years after the imprisonment of the journalist and writer Dawit Isaak, a number of organisations will, together with the Nobel Prize Laureate Herta Müller, manifest their support for their colleague Isaak and demand his release from prison in Eritrea. The manifestation takes place at the Göteborg Book Fair.

The Book Fair dedicates the 23 of September to Dawit Isaak. At the entrance to the Fair, 5000 free copies of his book "Hopp" ("Hope", a book produced in a unique collaboration between the publishing houses Alfabeta, Atlantis, Atlas, Albert Bonniers, Brombergs, Ersatz, Historiska Media, Norstedts, Ordfront, SNS and Weyler) will be handed out.

Among many participants har Peter Englund, secretaruy of the Swedish Academy, Anna Falck, CEO of the Göteborg Book Fair and Herta Müller, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009

Read the whole press release here.

Reporters Without Borders have also started a group within the Book Fair Community http://www.bok-bibliotek.se/sv/community/grupper/grupp/?clubid=2423 for all who would wish to join the discussion and campaign for Dawit's liberation.

Background
By September 23, 2001, the world had still not recovered from the effect of the terror attack in the US. Given such a background, the Eritrean regime managed to silence local critics, including Dawit Isaak – a journalist at independent newspaper "Setit".
"It was pure luck that I found out that Dawit had disappeared. I met a friend of his in the city of Gothenburg who told me about this. And since I had been to Eritrea two years earlier, it was unfortunately easy to understand that he had been imprisoned", said Esayas, Dawit's brother, who strongly believed and hoped that Dawid would be released by that year's Christmas. "Now, looking back makes it clear how naïve I was to believe it".
A year later, it was reported that he had been taken to hospital for his wounds from torture. However, Dawit Isaak's, and probably his relatives', being subject to torture in November 2005 during his unjust prison term is not the main issue. The silent diplomacy used by official Sweden seemed to have won when he was suddenly released, although three days later, the journalist was arrested again and taken back to prison. Since then, there have been very few signs of life. The leadership of Sweden and its culture news have unfortunately kept counting Dawit Isaak's days in captivity. The "Free Dawit Committee" continuously draws out petitions calling for the author's freedom and hands them over to the Eritrean Embassy in Stockholm every Tuesday.
"The Expressing of our opinions must continue. It is a way to protect him. If he had been dead, I am sure the news would have already been leaked out," said Esayas Isaak.
Dawit Isaak is believed to be in Eira Eiro prison, located in the north of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, as prisoner number 36.