“If you say any word about what I asked you here, you will be ruthlessly beaten by this. Leave this place and keep your mouth shut,” sergeant Mathewos warned Nurhusien. On his way home he met his father along with his uncle and grandfather.

“Where have you been?” asked the father.
“AGIP.”
“Who told you to ask? Didn’t we tell you that it is better for the elder to checkout?” added his uncle.
“Oh! I hope you didn’t say anything about Siraj…,” said his grandfather.

Nurhusien, after curiously looking at them said, “he is not there let us go back.”

“You just go home. We are going to meet Major Omer, he works there,” replied his grandfather.

“Until all the necessary examinations are completed don’t come here again. The case does not concern you. We will inform you when it is over. Now you leave the office,” said Major Omer after hearing their words.

They could do nothing except pray for the best. Months passed without any information about Siraj. His father returned to his village and Nurhusien to his studies.

The three detainees were put in different cells in Phorto, now the Ministry of information’s headquarters. One day, after ruthless punishment and interrogation in their separate cells, they were brought in front of an investigator. The prison in Phorto was dominated by the Ethiopian soldiers, the Amharas. Due to the tensions that developed between General Tedla Okbit and the newly assigned Amhara commanders, the Haileselassie government had already lost trust on the Eritrean police. So, major cases were followed by the Amharas.

Although ruthless punishment continued, their response never changed.
“You, Siraj, where do you know these people?”
“They are my clients. I sew for them clothes?”
“What about you? Where do you know him?”
“We know him as a tailor.”

They stayed for three months without knowing what would happen to them. Often, they thought about being executed as it was common during that time. One day, a covered green car, took them out of Phorto. The car stopped after some drive and they heard a door of a big gate being opened.

They could easily guess where they were taking them. It was Casermo Mussolini, Near Kuwa! They put them in the underground cells that were built during the Italian colonization. Their body bleeding, bruises allover their body, they spent the cold night without blankets. The next day they were told that they would go to the court.

“Could you please call this number and tell my family,” Siraj requested the guard besides him. The guard told him that he would call when it was convenient.

It was after mid night that the telephone rang. It was Siraji’s uncle that answered the call.

“I am a solider from the prison. Do you have a prisoner by the name Siraj?” he told him the message. He then conveyed it to close relatives in order to come to the court in the morning.

The family arrived early in the morning. When the van arrived, all eyes attentively looked towards it. He was Weldedawit that first come out, then Sium and Siraj followed.

“Don’t worry we are ok,” he said to the family while passing by. The hearing was conducted in a closed door. A solider came and handed us closes full of blood,” said Nurhusien.

“They read to them the report they were convicted with. And they told them that they could hire a lawyer. When they replied that they couldn’t afford hiring a lawyer, the government named Tsegay Iyasu. After a year and eight months of going around the bush, they gave them the final verdict. It took them this long because some people were coming to witness that they were contributing money to the struggle through Siraj.

One day a witness came. “Do you know this man?” Siraj was asked.

“Not that much,” he answered.
“What about you, do you know him?” they asked the witness.
“Yes I know him, he is Siraj. He is the one who recruited me. He gave me orders and I gave him the money that I collected from the unit that I lead.”

Siraj was furious. “You liar! We know each other because you once sold to me cloths that you illegally imported. We never know each other in another way. He jumped over and slammed the witness…a lot of trouble,” Nurhusien recalled.

The judge, Kenazmach Nuredin, was angry by what Siraj did. He sentenced him for three months for violating the dignity of the court. After three months the final verdict day came. The family again went to the court to see him as it was the only chance they had.

The verdict shocked all the people there. The three of them were sentenced for ten years each. “My father felt down when he heard this. Can we see each other again, Siraj?” He said when he came out of the shock.

When Siraj saw my father fell down, he said that ‘don’t worry dad. They have done what they could and Rebi, God, has his power.’ Staying for more than a year in the second police station, they were transferred to the newly built Sembel prison and stayed there for more than two years. Then they were taken to Adi-Quala.

“At that time, we heard that a leader from the Eritrean Liberation Struggle, Jebha, along with eight soldiers defected,” Teacher Nurhusien stated.

“Who was that?” we asked him.
“Wolday Kahsay. He was the leader of the 5th Faction during the era of factions in the armed struggle. He was a teacher. Nurhusien then brought a book and read some of its content.

“This book describes the Eritrean history in short. It was written by Mamo Wedneh,” Nurhusien said. He then pointed at what the book had about Siraj: “I suffered a lot. The main cause for all the trouble is the tailor called Siraj Ahmed. He recruited me and forced me to be involved in politics.

Wolday’s defection was the main topic of that time. There was a lot of media coverage about him. Siraj’s photo was also published on newspapers as a dangerous man. We feared that they could harm him because he was with them. Then I went there and told him about Wolday Kahsay; but he never got worried. “You know what he said?” Nurhusien asked us.

“What?”

Translated by D. Andebrhan