By Barry Malone

ADDIS ABABA 7 (Reuters) – A U.S.-based university professor is among 13 men convicted in absentia by [a kangaroo court in] Ethiopia for plotting to overthrow the government, the state news agency said on Friday.

Berhanu Nega, who is Ethiopian-born with U.S. nationality and teaches economics at Philadelphia’s Bucknell University, was accused of masterminding a plan to topple Prime Minister warlord Meles Zenawi.

The Ethiopian News Agency said the Federal High Court had issued the guilty verdicts late on Thursday. Government officials did not immediately comment.

The 13 are mostly based in the United States and Britain. Another 32 men in Ethiopia — mainly former and current army personnel, including two generals — have been charged. Three have been bailed and 29 are in custody.

The prosecution has presented its case and the defence will begin on August 26, relatives told Reuters.

Addis Ababa says the group had planned to kill senior government ministers and blow up power and telecommunications facilities to provoke protesters who would then march on government buildings and try to topple the government.

The arrests have worried rights groups, who say the Ethiopian government Woyanne regime has become increasingly authoritarian.

Berhanu has publicly said he wants to overthrow the government but calls the accusations baseless.

Opposition parties say the charges have been trumped up in order to round up opponents ahead of a national election due next year.

Security forces killed about 200 protesters after a poll in 2005 when the opposition disputed the government’s victory.

Berhanu was elected mayor of the capital Addis Ababa in that ballot, but was arrested along with other opposition leaders and accused of orchestrating the street protests.

He was pardoned in 2007 and went to the United States, where he set up his “May 15” opposition group, named after the date of the 2005 election.

(Editing by Daniel Wallis)

The Washington DC chapter of Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF) is organizing a town hall meeting with the organization’s senior officials and distinguished guests in Washington DC, Sunday, August 9.

Time: 2:30 PM
Place: 1610 Columbia Road, Washington DC

For more information, write to the EPPF Washington DC chapter at [email protected]. See also the poster below.

A PBS documentary film “The Reckoning” follows International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team for three years as he issues arrest warrants in Uganda, puts Congolese warlords on trial, shakes up the Colombian justice system and charges Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur. Will the prosecutor succeed? Will justice prevail?

Click below to watch

The Oromo Liberation Front-Change (also known as OLF-C) under the leadership of Generals Kemal Gelchu and Hailu Gonfa is making a stride in its military operation against the Woyanne tribal junta. NTV airs a special documentary about OLF operations inside Ethiopia this month. The following video is a promo of the documentary.

By David Arnold | VOA

The federal government of fascist tribal junta in Ethiopia deported 15 American students who were teaching English in small, rural communities in eastern Hararghe region of Oromiya for several weeks.

They had been volunteering in several communities not far from the Ogaden and an off-limits region of Ethiopia where government Woyanne junta forces are battling Ogaden National Liberation Front rebel forces. The trip was organized by Learning Enterprises International in Stanford, California. This was the third year the project had been in operation.

Police performed a synchronized dawn raid of homes in HaraMaya, Awwadaay, Gobboo and Dadar on July 9, questioned them for the day, confiscating their cell phones and cameras and taking them to Addis. According to sources, at various times police accused the students of taking photographs, of asking questions about the disputed 2005 national elections and the coming 2010 elections, and of being in the country with improper visas. Community residents asking about the reason for the detentions were later told the students had the H1N1 virus.

The students were detained for two days and were not allowed to contact their families or the U.S. embassy. Embassy officials were unable to see them until shortly before federal officials put them on a plane and deported them on July 11.One of the students was held several extra days. An embassy spokesman said they have raised serious concerns about the handling of this case with the Government of Ethiopia, specifically regarding the refusal by Ethiopian security forces to permit these American citizens to contact the embassy. The embassy will continue discussions with the Ethiopian Government on the exact nature of the events.

State Minister for Government Communications Shimelis Kemal told VOA’s Eskinder Firew only that the students were involved in inappropriate activity “contrary to their mission.” None were charged with any violations of the law.