Patriarch Abune Antonios, the former head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, was arrested in January 2006 after criticising the Eritrean government for detaining people, including priests, without due process. Amnesty International considered him to be a prisoner of conscience and joined his devoted followers, family and wider Eritrean human rights movement in campaigning for his release. On February 9th 2022, Patriarch Abune Antonios died after 16 years in unlawful detention. His death reminds us of the country’s most high-profile journalists and politicians who were unlawfully detained in 2001 as a part of a wider crackdown on government critics.
