There are an estimated 2,000 Eritrean Christians under arrest without trial or legal charge for the sole reason of their religious beliefs, according to Compass Direct News, a Christian news agency that reports exclusively on the persecution of Christians. Eritrean security forces raid weddings, baptisms, worship services, prayer meetings and other religious gatherings and arrest both hosts and guests.
College-educated "Samuel" (his name has been changed), 24, was arrested in 2005 along with 19 other people while attending a friend's wedding ceremony. After he was imprisoned, Samuel was forced to perform backbreaking manual labor for the next 12 months and regularly beaten, according to BBC.
One of the tortures he had to endure involved being hung from a tree with his arms stretched in the form of a crucifixion for three days.
"They asked me if I would like to leave [my faith]. They asked every night for four months," he told BBC News.
Other tortures faced by Christians include being held in metal shipping containers under the hot sun, beatings, and deprivation of food.
Eritrea also recently cracked down on the Orthodox Church, with which it previously had a close relationship.
The head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church - former Patriarch Abune Antonios, 80 - was illegally dismissed from his position in January 2006 after criticising the government for interfering in church activities and for its persecution of evangelical churches, according to human rights group Amnesty International. For nearly two years he has been under stringent house arrest with little news heard about his condition in the past few months.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom in May recommended that Eritrea be re-designated by the State Department as one of the 11 "countries of particular concern" (CPCs) for 2007. The US Department of State has designated Eritrea as a CPC for three straight years - the worst religious freedom violation label.
