As of April 2023[update],[1] the National Security Office is headed by Abraha Kassa, who has led the NSO since 1997 or earlier.
[2][3] In his role as head of NSO, Abraha Kassa led a group of Eritrean generals visiting Ethiopian institutions including the Information Network Security Agency in April 2023.
Mehari Yohannes, a former member of the Eritrea People's Liberation Front who was a security officer in the Asmara prison holding the detainees in June 1997, gave a lower execution count, stating that "nearly 30" Eritreans suspected of being jihadists were executed on 18 June 1997.
[2] On 22 March 2021, the Council of the European Union imposed sanctions against the NSO under Regulation (EU) 2020/1998, stating that NSO was responsible for "arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances of persons and torture by its agents" in Eritrea.
[3] The Eritrean Ministry of Information described the sanctions as "malicious", "trumped-up charges" for "ulterior motives".