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Dawit Isaak is born on October 27, 1964 in Eritrea.
Dawit Isaak is a Swedish-Eritrean playwright, journalist and writer who has been held in prison in Eritrea since 2001 without charges or a trial and is considered a traitor by the Eritrean government.

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Dawit Isaak, born in 1964, is a dual citizen of Eritrea and Sweden who has been imprisoned without trial in Eritrea since September, 2001. In the first 20 years of his life Dawit became a prominent, award-winning author of several novels and plays, including two in Tigrinya, Eritrea’s official language. Dawit fled Eritrea, the country of his birth, in 1985 during the country’s brutal 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia. During this time Dawit moved to Sweden where he began at a refugee camp but found work cleaning a church in Gothenburg. The author became an active member of Sweden’s Eritrean diaspora, who shared the dream of an independent homeland.

When Eritrea had its independence officially recognized in 1992, Dawit returned to the new country’s capital of Asmara, and started a children’s group at a local theater. In 1997, with a group of journalists, Dawit founded Setit, the first and only independent newspaper in Eritrea’s history. In 2001 a group of opposition politicians published a letter urging President Isaias Afwerki to hold free elections as promised, a

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Dawit Isaak Who?

There are many reasons why the Swedish government has not managed to secure the release of Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak more than twenty years after his illegal imprisonment in Eritrea in 2001. The main responsibility for this failure obviously rests with the Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki and the country’s leadership who today count among the world’s most repressive regimes. They have proven themselves impervious to any and all appeals made on Mr. Isaak’s behalf.

Nevertheless, the Swedish side has not escaped its share of criticism.

Possibly the biggest failure to date is the fact that over the past two decades, Swedish authorities have not managed to make the fate of one of their own citizens into a true “cause célèbre.” By now, a broad awareness should exist of the horrendous crimes committed by the Eritrean regime against Mr. Isaak and thousands of his fellow Eritreans. Instead, the man who is one of the longest-imprisoned journalists in the world remains virtually unknown and strangely invisible, both at home

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Dawit Isaak

Swedish-Eritrean writer

Dawit Isaak (born 28 October 1964) is a Swedish-Eritrean playwright, journalist and writer who has been held in prison in Eritrea since 2001 without charges or a trial and is considered a traitor by the Eritrean government.^[1]Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience and has called for his immediate and unconditional release.^[2] For years, he was the only Swedish citizen held as a prisoner of conscience^[1] (he is now joined by kidnapped Swedish citizen and publicist Gui Minhai). As of 2025, he is considered to be one of the world's longest continuously detained journalists^[3]. Mike Balsamo, the president of the National Press Club claims him to be the longest detained journalist in the world. ^[4]

Asylum and Swedish citizenship

Isaak came to Sweden in August 1987, where he settled in the west coast city of Gothenburg and became a Swedish citizen on 4 November 1992. When Eritreagained independence, Isaak returned to his native country, married and had children. He