ASMARA, Eritrea —- Unconfirmed reports emerged in May in the Eritrean capital of Asmara indicating that the repressive regime plans to press formal charges of treason against several Protestant pastors jailed for the past four years. Official conviction for treason carries the death penalty in the tiny Horn of Africa nation.
Relatives and church members of the long-jailed pastors are experiencing "great anxiety" over these unconfirmed reports, sources inside Eritrea said.
Full Gospel Church leaders Haile Naizghi and Kifle Gebremeskel, together with Tesfatsion Hagos of the Rema Evangelical Church,- have been imprisoned incommunicado for the past four years. According to an investigative report released in May, these three pastors "have been missing within the Eritrean prison system since their arrests in May 2004." The report fingered special presidential adviser and government minister Naizghi Kiflu as "the man within the government in charge of crushing the churches."
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