21Wilberforce and the Baptist World Alliance are joining other Christian groups in calling for the release of seven church leaders in Eritrea who have been detained without trial more than 20 years.
The #Voices4Justice campaign is urging Eritrean government officials to release seven arbitrarily detained Christian leaders — Haile Naizge, Kuflu Gebremeskel, Million Gebreselassie, Futsum Gebrenegus, Tekleab Menghisteab, Gebremedhin Gebregiorgis and Kidane Weldou.
RELATED: Check out more stories on the persecuted church.
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“21Wilberforce appeals to the president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, to release the seven church leaders,” said Wissam al-Saliby, president of 21Wilberforce, a human rights organization focused on international religious freedom.
“The denial of their freedom for more than two decades is a grave injustice that should end. Let’s keep them, and the whole of Eritrea, in our prayers.”
BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown pointed to widespread persecution of religious minorities in Eritrea.
“Across all of Eritrea, there remain hundreds and hundreds of people whose lives are severely impacted by some of the worst persecution in all of the world,” Brown said in a video message.
He urged Baptists and other concerned Christians to be “a voice for justice” by calling for the immediate release of the seven detained church leaders.
Denied legal representation and family visits
Four of the detained Christian leaders are from evangelical denominations. The other three are part of a reform movement of the Eritrean Orthodox Church that encourages teaching Scripture in a local language.
The church leaders not only have been held more than two decades without being charged, but also have been denied legal representation and family visits.
“All seven are men of extremely good standing. Several played key roles in providing medical and social assistance to fellow Eritreans,” a letter the #Voices4Justice campaign is sending to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated.
In a letter to Berhane G. Solomon, chargé d’affaires of the Eritrean embassy in the United States, leaders of the campaign stated the seven Christian leaders have been “denied both due process and a fair, speedy and public hearing.”
“Furthermore, the conditions of their imprisonment violate the protections afforded to them both under the [Eritrean] Constitution and the international obligations Eritrea has pledged to uphold,” the letter stated.
“These are sons, husbands, fathers and men of good character. Unfortunately, they are representative of many more men, women and even children held in violation of both their constitutional and internationally recognised rights.
“We therefore call on your government to release these men and every prisoner of conscience unconditionally, beginning with those detained for excessive periods without charge, trial, or access to their families or legal representatives.”
Prisoners of conscience suffer mistreatment
In its most recent annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also noted the Eritrean government “continued to incarcerate [freedom of religion or belief] prisoners under egregious conditions in dozens of facilities across the country.”
Many prisoners of conscience “endure particularly severe mistreatment, including physical abuse, sexual violence, torture, and denial of medical treatment, something resulting in death,” the report stated.
Representatives of the #Voices4Justice campaign will rally outside the Eritrean Embassy in Washington, D.C., at 11 a.m. on Aug. 21 — the day before the United Nations-sponsored International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief — to pray for the release of the detained Christian leaders and other prisoners of conscience in Eritrea.
21Wilberforce is inviting concerned individuals to click here to endorse the letter to the Eritrean Embassy and click here to sign the letter to the U.S. Secretary of State.
Freedom Seekers International is sponsoring a regional East Texas prayer vigil as part of the #Voices4Justice campaign at 11:45 a.m. on Aug. 22 at Bergfeld Park in Tyler.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ken Camp and originally published by Baptist Standard.
