Six Zone9bloggers collective members and three other independent journalists are in detention since last April 2014. Accusation of Ethiopian government which suspected them in working with human rights organizations was changed to terrorism after 23 days of interrogation. After three months on interrogation detention , all of them including one more blogger in absentia were charged of terrorism at the end of July 2014. The case is still on its Pre- trial stage which was more focused on the format and the substance of the charges. Within the last nine months they were taken to court nineteen times and their constitutionally given rights has been continuously violated since their arrest.
EHRP and Freedom Now ( DC based Human Rights advocacy organization) takes the case to the united nation working group on arbitrary detention. This petition against the Ethiopian Government was presented to the working group on January 26th , 2015. The petition shows the rights violations they have faced during detention and legal analysis why their arrest was arbitrary.
Below please read the full petition.
UNWGAD-Petition-Zone-9-Ethiopia-1.26.15_4 updated
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