Amnesty International Group #612
Raul Hernandez
Petros Solomon
Andes Regional Action Network
Death Penalty
Since May 2006, Group #612 has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Petros Solomon, Eritrean prisoner of conscience.
2001 saw an emerging criticism within Eritrea’s only political party, the People’s Front for Democracy & Justice (PFDJ), of the way President Afewerki was running the country in general, and the party in particular. This dissent became public in May 2001 when a group of 15 senior party officials, including Petros Solomon, publicized their concerns in an open letter to PFDJ members. On the night of September 18, 2001, 11 of the 15 signatories were arrested. They have been held incommunicado without charge or trial ever since, despite national and international calls for information on their whereabouts.
Amnesty International considers these 11 detainees to be prisoners of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful expression of the political views. AI is concerned that they have not been charged with a recognizable criminal offense, and that they are being held incommunicado without access to their families, lawyers or an international humanitarian organization. Due to the harsh conditions of detention in Eritrea and the prisoners' being held in a secret and unauthorized place of detention, AI is concerned about the safety and treatment of the detainees, especially those with medical conditions. Thus, AI calls for their immediate and unconditional release.
Petros Solomon is being held in an unknown location and his current health conditions are unknown. He is the former Minister of Maritime Resources, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, former Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) military commander, head of EPLF intelligence and politbureau member since 1977.
Click here to view a sample letter to the editor regarding Petros' arrest.
To learn about Estifanos Seyoum, another G15 detainee, please check out Amnesty Group 22's website here.
Group #612 is part of the Andes Regional Action Network (ANDRAN), a consortium of Amnesty groups whose goal is to improve human rights in Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. Current campaigns in the ANDRAN include protecting human rights defenders, ending the culture of impunity for human rights violations, eliminating torture and police brutality, and working for social and economic human rights throughout the countries in the region. Each month, Group #612 members take part in Urgent Actions for the ANDRAN. We also write to our Congressional representatives, asking them to support ANDRAN's goals.
"Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life."
-Albert Camus, Reflections on the Guillotine, 1957
The death penalty is the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights. By working towards the abolition of the death penalty worldwide, Amnesty International USA Group 612 looks to end the cycle of violence created by a system riddled with economic and racial bias and tainted by human error. Please join us in taking action against the death penalty.
We participate in worldwide campaigns to end the death penalty and for a moratorium on executions in the US and in California in particular. We are greatly encouraged by Senator John Burton's initiative to create the California Commission On Fair Administration of Justice.
Around 118 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. On average, in the past decade more than three countries a year have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Despite international human rights standards, some nations still execute people. Around the world, the death penalty is used as a tool of political repression and a means to forever silence political opponents or eliminate politically "troublesome" individuals.
On January 21, 2004, Amnesty International launched its "Stop Child Executions" campaigning action. Since 2000, only five countries are known to have executed juvenile offenders: China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Pakistan, and the USA. Thirteen of these 21 executions have been in the USA.