Ethiopian Opposition Leaders Sentenced to Life in Prison
By Daniel Hollingsworth
July 18, 2007 | Printer Friendly

The Washington Post reports that on July 17, a judge sentenced thirty Ethiopian members of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party to life in prison for charges stemming from protests following elections in 2005, while five additional individuals were sentenced in absentia.  Leaders of CUD were convicted of “outrage against the constitution” and “inciting armed opposition,” charges that Ana Gomes, the European Union election monitor for Ethiopia in 2005, calls “farcical” and “inhumane,” according to the BBC.  The prosecutors in the case originally recommended death sentences, so the life terms represent a step back by the government.  In remarks to Voice of America, Dr. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, expressed relief that the death penalty was avoided but argued that this does not remove the question of whether “these punishments of life sentences [were] proportionate to the crimes that were committed.” 

Protests after the 2005 election, in which CUD made major gains despite accusations that the vote was flawed, provoked a sharp and violent response from the Ethiopian government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.  At least 193 people were killed in these clashes, and 30,000 people were initially imprisoned.  Most of those imprisoned were released following widespread international criticism of the arrests.  A subsequent independent report by an Ethiopian judge accused the police of carrying out a massacre; the judge later fled the country after being pressured to alter his report and receiving death threats, according to the BBC. 

In recent months, the Ethiopian government has offered to grant the prisoners’ release on the condition that they accept responsibility for the violence in 2005, an offer that has repeatedly been refused.  Throughout the trials, the Washington Post writes that “U.S. officials have been negotiating behind the scenes for the prisoners' release -- efforts that some of their relatives said were compromised because of Ethiopia's alliance with the United States in fighting terrorism in the Horn of Africa.”  U.S. Representative Donald M. Payne (D-NJ) has sponsored a bill in Congress calling for the unconditional release of all political prisoners in Ethiopia, as “they have paid a price for what they felt was simply expressing political views.”

The Washington Post adds that “the case of Ethiopia's imprisoned opposition leaders is only part of what U.S. officials, human rights advocates and the Ethiopian opposition say is a broader pattern of repression that continues across the country and is now occurring inside Somalia, where Ethiopian troops and their Somali allies are battling an insurgency.”  It cites continued harassment of political opponents in Addis Ababa and violence in the ethnic Somali Ogaden region, where there are reports of villages being burned and people being arrested, tortured, and even killed for allegedly supporting the Ogaden Liberation Front, a militant opposition group. 

References:

Washington Post: Ethiopian Opposition Figures Get Life Terms in Widely Faulted Case

BBC News: Ethiopia life jail terms attacked

Voice of America: Will 35 Ethiopians Acknowledge Blame to Win Their Freedom?