The Ethiopian Government must end its
escalating crackdown on human rights defenders, independent media,
peaceful protestors as well as members and leaders of the political
opposition through the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation (ATP) says a group of
civil society organisations (CSOs).
“The government’s repression of
independent voices has significantly worsened as the Oromo protest
movement has grown,” said Yared Hailemariam, Director of the Association
for Human Rights in Ethiopia (AHRE). “The international community
should demand the end of this state-orchestrated clampdown and the
immediate release of peaceful critics to prevent the situation from
deteriorating further.”
The recent escalation in the use of the
ATP to prosecute peaceful protesters, journalists, bloggers, human
rights defenders, and opposition leaders and members is indicative of
the Ethiopian Government’s growing intolerance of dissent. Largely
peaceful protests began in November 2015 against the dispossession of
land without adequate compensation in the Oromia region. In response to
the protests, the Ethiopian authorities have arbitrarily arrested
thousands of people and several hundred people have been summarily
killed by the security services while participating in the protests.
While the bulk of those arrested since
February 2016 have not been charged, several are currently being
prosecuted under the ATP. These include Getachew Shiferaw
(Editor-in-Chief of the online newspaper Negere Ethiopia),
Yonathan Tesfaye Regassa (former head of public relations for the
opposition Semayawi Party), Bekele Gerba (Deputy Chair, Oromo Federalist
Congress (OFC)) and Dejene Tufa (Deputy General Secretary, OFC) and
Gurmesa Ayana (secretary, OFC). Fikadu Mirkana, (news editor and a
reporter with the public Oromia Radio and TV), was arrested on 19
December 2015, charged under the ATP and released five months later in
April 2016.
Getachew was held in Maekelawi Detention
Centre after his arrest on 25 December 2015. On 22 April 2016, upon
reaching the four-month limit for investigations permissible under the
ATP, the court ordered the Federal Police to close the investigation.
Yet Getachew remained in police custody and on 23 May was charged under
the ATP. He has since been moved to the Kilinto detention centre.
“The Ethiopian government is using laws
and judicial processes that fail to meet international human rights
standards to harass and stifle dissent, targeting activists, human
rights defenders, opposition party leaders and journalists ” said Haben
Fecadu, Campaigner at Amnesty International.
Despite repeated calls from CSOs,
independent UN experts, the European Parliament, and numerous
governments, including the United States, the Ethiopian authorities
continue to arbitrarily detain and prosecute scores of peaceful
protestors for exercising their rights, using the broad provisions of
the ATP to criminalise peaceful expressions of dissent. Since the
enactment of the ATP in 2009, human rights defenders, journalists,
bloggers and peaceful protestors have been prosecuted and convicted
under its provisions.
“The international community – including
the United Nations – should unconditionally condemn the arbitrary
arrest and detention of human rights defenders in Ethiopia,” said Hassan
Shire, Executive Director of DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa
Human Rights Defenders Project). “The Ethiopian government’s use of
counter-terrorism as a smokescreen to target the peaceful work of human
rights defenders is an affront to its regional and international
obligations.”
Most recently, on 10 May 2016, blogger
Zelalem Workagenehu was sentenced to five years and four months in
prison under the ATP. Zelalem, who works for the independent diaspora
blog, De Birhan, was convicted under charges of conspiring to
overthrow the government and supporting terrorism under the ATP. The
activities on which these charges were based included organising a
digital security training course and reporting on the peaceful protest
movements in the country. Though the Federal High Court acquitted some
of his co-defendants on 15 April 2016, the police re-arrested two of
them only hours after they were released from Kilinto Prison on 17 April
2016 and detained them at Maekelawi Prison for a night. Yonathan Wolde
and Bahiru Degu were charged with applying to participate in the same
training, described by the government as “training to terrorise the
country,” and of being members of Ginbot 7, a banned Ethiopian
opposition party, which they deny.
Zelalem and Bahiru described for the
trial court their conditions of and treatment in detention. Zelalem said
he was detained in “Siberia” in the central Maekelawi Prison in Addis
Ababa and was tortured by interrogators.
“Independent civil society and media is
being quashed out of existence in Ethiopia,” said Tor Hodenfield, Policy
and Advocacy Officer at CIVICUS. “The international community must call
for more than tokenistic releases of human rights defenders and
encourage the Ethiopian government to support avenues of peaceful
dissent.”
Several members and leaders of
opposition political parties have also been targeted under the ATP.
Bekele Gerba and 21 other individuals were arrested on 23 December 2016,
and charged under the ATP. They were then held for a four-month long
investigation without access to their lawyer. Authorities transferred
them to Kilinto Detention Centre on 22 April 2016. On 11 May 2016, the
Prison Administration declined to bring the defendants to Lideta Federal
High Court since all the defendants wore black suits, in expression of
their mourning for the people killed during the protests. On 4 May 2016,
former Spokesperson of the opposition Semayawi (Blue) Party, Yonathan
Tesfaye Regassa, was charged with “incitement, planning, preparation,
conspiracy and attempt” to commit a terrorism related act under the ATP.
On 25 April 2016, the Federal High Court
sentenced the former Governor of Gambella Region, Okello Akway Ochalla,
to nine years imprisonment under the ATP. Okello fled Ethiopia after
the 2003 massacre in the region, and obtained Norwegian citizenship. He
was arbitrarily arrested in South Sudan in March 2014 and handed over to
Ethiopian security forces. He was originally charged under the ATP. The
trial of Okello and his co-defendants was marred by violations of fair
trial guarantees and including the use of witness testimonies in
exchange for non-prosecution under the ATP.
The undersigned CSOs demand the
competent Ethiopian authorities to take the necessary steps to bring the
ATP in line with its international, regional and constitutional human
rights obligations and immediately and unconditionally release all human
rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and opposition party leaders
and members imprisoned for peacefully exercising their rights.
- Amnesty International
- Article 19
- Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia (AHRE)
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Civil Rights Defenders
- Defend Defenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Right Defenders Project)
- Ethiopia Human Rights Project (EHRP)
- Front Line Defenders
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
