Aster Yohannes

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Aster Yohannes


Spouse	Petros Solomon

Aster Yohannes is the wife of detained Eritrean politician Petros Solomon. She is a veteran of Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).

She has been in prison held in an undisclosed place by the Eritrean government since December 2003. She was detained by security personnel at Asmara International Airport in the capital Asmara on 11 December, when she returned after a three year period study at the University of Phoenix in Arizona. She had returned to Eritrea with a newly issued Eritrean passport, to be with her four children aged between 6 and 13 at the time of her arrest. During her absence her children had been cared for by her mother.

Prior to her departure to Eritrea from the US, she was reportedly given assurances of safety by the then Eritrean Ambassador to the United States Girma Asmerom. The Eritrean authorities have given no reason for her arrest or said where she is held. She has not been permitted to see her family. Amnesty International fears she could be subjected to torture or ill-treatment, held in secret and detained for an indefinite period without charge or trial.