Eritrea: Former Finance Minister Who Called Eritrea Leader ‘Dictator’ Dies in Prison

A former Eritrean finance minister who was arrested in 2018 after calling Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki a dictator has died in prison, his family told VOA Horn of Africa Service.

The Eritrean government remained silent on the death of Berhane Abrehe, who was the country’s finance minister from 2001 to 2012. The reason for his death has not been announced, but the government allowed his burial in Asmara on Aug. 22.

“He died while in prison after being held incommunicado [in] detention for about six years, despite his fragile health conditions,” said Ephrem Berhane, Berhane Abrehe’s son, who lives in the eastern U.S. state of Maryland.

Berhane was neither charged nor allowed family visitations, despite being in frail health, according to his Maryland-based nephew Solomon Habtom, who initially facilitated the publication of Berhane’s controversial book critical of the Eritrean government.

“During the final days before his death, they allowed his wife to visit him in the air force hospital where he died,” Solomon said.

Berhane fell out with the Isaias administration in 2012 following a disagreement on its handling of the country’s finances. In 2018, he was arrested shortly after publishing two-volume book outside the country while living in Eritrea.

Before his arrest, he called Isaias a “dictator” and called on him to step down. In a widely circulated audio tape, Berhane challenged Isaias to debate him publicly.

His family paid tribute to a “principled and a family man, who very much cared about the public good,” Solomon said.

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The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor condemned Berhane’s long detention.

“Saddened to hear of the death in prison of former Eritrean finance minister Berhane Abrehe,” the post on the social media platform X said. “He was apprehended in 2018 after publishing a book on the state of governance in his country, Eritrea. We call on the [Eritrean] government to respect its citizens’ fundamental freedoms and release all those unjustly detained.”

The Eritrean government has not acknowledged Berhane’s arrest in 2018. The state media, which in the past announced the deaths of high-profile people, also did not broadcast news of his death. Yet supporters flocked to his funeral, said Solomon, who received the information from sources inside the country.

VOA has not received a comment from the Eritrean government despite several attempts.

In an honor bestowed only to people in active duty and an unusual move by the Eritrean government, Berhane’s body was laid to rest in Martyrs’ Cemetery in Asmara.

This story originated in VOA Horn of Africa’s Tigrigna Service.

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