In May of 2006, Group 22 adopted a Prisoner of Conscience (POC) from Eritrea. Our POC's name is Estifanos Seyoum. We don't have a photo and we don't know his age, although an unconfirmed Wikipedia stub says he was born in 1947. We do know that he was a Brigadier General and former head of the Inland Revenue Service.

Estifanos Seyoum was arrested on September 18, 2001, along with 10 other members of the "Group of 15" (G15 for short). These senior members of the Eritrea National Assembly had all signed open letters criticizing the policies of President Issayas and calling for open debate of Eritrea's problems. (Three of the G15 were out of the country when the others were arrested and one has recanted.)

The Eritrean government said that the G15 detainees committed treason, but they have never been officially charged or brought to trial. Since the arrest, Estifanos Seyoum and the other G15 detainees have been held incommunicado, without access to their families or lawyers or international humanitarian organizations, and the location of their place of detention is secret. Amnesty International has serious concerns about their health and treatment in custody.