After 15 years of silence and detention without trial, Eritrea’s most prominent satirical cartoonist, Biniam Solomon, is finally free.

Known to his fans by the pen name “Cobra,” the 60-year-old artist was released from Asmara’s “Crime Investigation” prison this week, according to family and friends.

Biniam Solomon was a dual-threat intellectual; he served as a physics teacher by day while skewering political absurdity by night.

Despite losing an arm in childhood, he became a prolific artist whose work flourished during Eritrea’s brief window of press freedom (1997–2001).

His cartoons were famous for their sharp social commentary, particularly his “Conversation with Cobra” series.

One of his most iconic drawings satirized the “freezing” (suspension) of government ministers in 2001, depicting a fearful official refusing to leave his bed until he heard on the radio whether he still had a job.

Biniam’s ordeal began in 2011 when he was arrested in the capital, Asmara. For a decade and a half, while in detention he was never officially charged with a crime or brought before a judge.

He was held incommunicado, with his family receiving no word of his condition or whereabouts; detained in a facility notorious for housing political prisoners and conscientious objectors under severe conditions.

While Biniam’s release is a victory for his family and the artistic community, it exhibits the opaque nature of the Eritrean justice system.

Human rights groups estimate that thousands of others remain in “underground” prisons without trial.