SWEDEN MUST ACT: DEMAND JUSTICE FOR DAWIT ISAAK AND HOLD ERITREA ACCOUNTABLE6.10.2025 10:00:00 CEST | Pressmeddelande
Betlehem Isaak, daughter of Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak, calls on Sweden to commit to justice. Dawit Isaak – Swedish-Eritrean journalist, playwright, and the 2024 Edelstam Prize Laureate – has been arbitrarily detained, incommunicado in Eritrea for 24 years, without trial, legal representation, or contact with his family. He is the world’s longest-detained journalist. The recent decision by Sweden’s Prosecutor General not to open a criminal investigation into Eritrean officials for crimes against humanity is a grave failure of justice. Sweden must send a clear message: impunity must end, and Mr. Dawit Isaak must be released. The Edelstam Foundation strongly supports his daughter Betlehem Isaak’s call for the Swedish government to commit to holding Eritrea accountable. *** Dawit Isaak was born in Asmara, Eritrea, and fled the brutal Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict in 1985, eventually settling in Sweden.Inspired by Sweden’s democratic values and media freedom, Isaak became a prominent adv