Thirteen Eritreans who spent more than 18 years behind bars without ever seeing a courtroom have finally been released from the regime’s notorious Mai Serwa military prison. Their families, who were barred from visitation for nearly two decades, confirmed the news — a grim reminder of a system built on secrecy, fear, and torture.
Among the newly freed is 69-year-old Olympian cyclist and businessman Zeragaber Gebrehiwot, a national sports icon who represented Ethiopia in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, imprisoned since 2007. Alongside him walked out prominent businessmen Tesfalem Mengsteab, Bekure Mebrahtu, and the Habtemariam brothers, as well as six senior police officers and an internal security agent. Their “crime,” according to a former inmate, was being swept up after an assassination attempt on Col. Simon Gebredingil, a key figure in President Isaias Afwerki’s internal security apparatus.
Roughly 30 people were originally arrested, and while a few were quietly released over the years, around 20 remained trapped in the regime’s shadowy prison system — a network the UN has repeatedly described as one of the world’s harshest and most secretive.
A System Built on Disappearance
Mai Serwa sits just outside Asmara and has over time expanded into a complex of metal shipping containers, where inmates are held incommunicado under brutal conditions. Former detainees describe suffocating heat, extreme isolation, and routine abuse. The UN and leading human rights organizations have long accused the Eritrean government of torture, forced disappearance, and the long-term imprisonment of thousands of political opponents.
The regime has, predictably, offered no explanation for the sudden releases. Relatives suggest deteriorating health may be a factor — a pattern consistent with Eritrea’s practice of quietly releasing prisoners only when they are on the brink of death.
A Country with No Constitution, No Elections, No Press, No Budget, and No Internet
Eritrea’s human rights record remains one of the darkest in the world. For over 32 years, President Isaias Afwerki has ruled without elections, without a functioning constitution, and without a single independent media outlet. Since 2001 — when the government shut down the press and arrested reformist politicians known as the G-15 along with 16 journalists — the country has remained a black box of repression.
An entire generation has grown up under indefinite military conscription, a system critics describe as state-sanctioned slavery. Tens of thousands of Eritreans have fled, risking their lives to escape a country where dissent is met with disappearance.
Last year, former finance minister Berhane Abrehe, who dared to call President Isaias a dictator, died in prison after six years of detention without trial. His death, reported from the Carsheli prison in Asmara, underscores the lethal nature of Eritrea’s prison system.
A Glimpse Into a Closed Dictatorship
The release of these 13 prisoners is not a sign of reform — it is a reminder of the regime’s absolute power to cage and release human beings at will, without law, transparency, or accountability.
At 79, Isaias Afwerki remains one of the world’s longest-serving autocrats, presiding over a one-man state where the fate of political prisoners — including 11 members of the G-15 and multiple journalists — remains unknown to this day.
