ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia jails prominent blogger and opposition figures.

Record ID: 803874

  • Title: ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia jails prominent blogger and opposition figures.
  • Date: 14th July 2012
  • Summary: PRISON VAN CARRYING PRISONERS DRIVING DOWN ROAD AWAY FROM COURT, RELATIVES LOOKING ON
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ethiopia
  • Country: Ethiopia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEHK6AYZ4FGG8EAO3K80CC3LQI
  • Story Text: Twenty Ethiopians, including a prominent blogger, journalists and opposition figures were jailed for between eight years to life on Friday (July 13) on charges of conspiring with rebels to topple the government.
    Rights groups condemned the sentences and the Committee to Protect Journalists said it showed Ethiopia was using an "iron fist" to crush critical reporting.
    The Horn of Africa nation, a major recipient of Western aid, is fighting separatist rebel movements and armed groups it says are backed by arch-foe Eritrea.
    But rights groups say Ethiopia, sandwiched between volatile Somalia and Sudan, regularly uses security concerns as an excuse to crack down on dissent and media freedoms.
    The Addis Ababa government, a key ally in Washington's campaign against Islamist militants in Somalia, denies the charge. No one was immediately available to comment on Friday.
    Blogger and journalist Eskinder Nega, who was arrested last year and accused of trying to incite violence with a series of online articles, was jailed for 18 years.
    Five other exiled journalists were sentenced in absentia to between 15 years to life.
    Andualem Arage, from the opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) party, was jailed for life. Two other prominent opposition figures, Berhanu Nega and Andargachew Tsige, both out of the country, also received life sentences.
    The 20 were charged last year, most of them in absentia, with counts including conspiracy to dismantle the constitutional order, recruitment and training for terror acts and aiding Eritrea and a rebel group to disrupt security.
    They were also accused of belonging to Ginbot 7, a group branded a "terrorist" organisation by the government.
    A spokesman for the UDJ party said Friday's verdicts were intended to deter any opposition movement in Ethiopia.
    "The message is clear - that given the earlier explanations and then today's verdict any action, anything, any action, any movement, any reaction that smells of the North African and Arab countries movement or the so-called Ginbot 7 is dangerous. That is the message," said Andwalem Araya.
    Another four people charged with them were not sentenced on Friday and were being treated as a separate case, said court officials.
    Eskinder Nega's lawyer Abebe Guta told Reuters his client would appeal against the sentence.
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