Nobel laureates urge release of Swedish-Eritrean journalist

Sep 23, 2011, 14:52 GMT

Stockholm - Nobel Literature Prize winners Mario Vargas Llosa and Herta Mueller on Friday joined calls for the release of a Swedish-Eritrean journalist who has been held in a prison in Eritrea for 10 years without trial.

Dawit Isaak was arrested on September 23, 2001, during a clampdown by authorities on independent newspapers. Little has been heard from him since, and concerns are growing for his health.

The appeal urged the Swedish government and the European Union to demand 'as an absolute minimum' that an international Red Cross delegation be allowed to visit Isaak and ensure that he and other detainees receive medical attention.

If this is rejected, sanctions should be considered against Eritrea and companies that back the government.

The appeal was issued at the international book fair in the west coast city of Gothenburg, where Isaak's family lives. Some 5,000 copies of a book penned by Isaak were given away free to visitors.

Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 literature prize, and Mueller who won it in 2009, were among scores of authors attending the fair.

Isaak sought asylum in Sweden in 1987 and became a citizen in 1992. Some eight years later, he returned to Eritrea to work for the independent weekly Setit.

The call for Isaak's release was also supported by Peter Englund, secretary of the Swedish Academy that selects the literature prize winners, the heads of the Swedish and international media watchdogs, and the chief executive of the Goteborg Book Fair.

The Swedish government has called for his immediate release.

Efforts by Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt to negotiate Isaak's release with Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York earlier this week failed.

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