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Episode details

World Service,01 Jul 2019,53 mins

Thrown overboard: A stowaway's survival

Outlook

Available for over a year

A boy is stolen off the street on his way to school and forced to fight in the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. After years of fighting, he escapes and stows away on a ship. But to his horror, he finds it is not much safer than the battlefield. The extraordinary story of Jemal Damtawe, the man who spent a lifetime on the run. For many years, Uzbekistan was a particularly dangerous place to be a journalist. Speaking out against the government of former president Islam Karimov could lead to torture and a lengthy spell in prison. So it was a surprise for many when in 2004 secret messages started appearing online, containing what seemed like detailed and scandalous information about the president's household. For years, the identity of the writer was kept a secret, and the messages kept coming. Then one day, an inconspicuous football writer called Bobomurod Abdullayev was snatched off the streets by the security forces, and the secret was finally out. (Photo credit: Getty Images.)

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