ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — An Ethiopian judge has again denied bail for 40 suspects jailed last month in connection with an alleged plot to destabilize the country. The suspects were ordered held for another two weeks while prosecutors decide what to charge them with.
Weeping relatives stood outside an Addis Ababa courthouse Monday hoping for a glimpse of loved ones arrested April 24 in what officials originally called a roundup of suspected coup plotters.
Government spokesmen later backed away from the coup plot theory, saying the conspiracy was only aimed at assassinating government leaders and bombing strategic installations. The judge Monday gave prosecutors two more weeks to decide what the charges will be.
The crowd outside the courthouse watched anxiously as one by one, 19 pickup trucks, each with a canvas-covered bed, backed up to a courtroom door and, out of the view of onlookers, deposited handcuffed defendants for a brief appearance before a judge.
Occasionally, a face would appear for a few seconds at a screened hole in the canvas, or a cuffed hand could be seen waving. But for the most part, the onlookers hopes of sighting a jailed relative were dashed.
People in the crowd all asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. Many, like a young woman who allowed her voice to be recorded in Amharic, charged her loved one’s rights had been violated because prison visits by family members and attorneys had been prohibited.
She says, ‘we went to visit, but have not been able to see our relatives.’ She said relatives had only been allowed to drop off food at the gate and leave.
Government spokesman Shimelis Kemal, a former prosecutor, denied any defendants’ rights had been violated. He told VOA no requests for prison visits had been received.
“What I have learned is since no one asked investigators or people in charge there, they were not able to facilitate this because they were not asked to do so,” said Shimelis Kemal.
Human rights activists and an attorney with ties to the case, questioned the constitutionality of holding prisoners for up to six weeks without charge or possibility of bail.
Spokesman Shimelis, however, said the law does not place any limit on length of detention.
“Look, this is a pre-trial detention, the ethiopian criminal code clearly defines the conditions made by detaining authorities when a person is detained before trial. this is a normal procedure,” he said. “The law does not set out a time limit for remand. Only that one can be remanded up to 14 days, and there is no time limit for how many remands should the court shall grant to police. It doesn’t say anything.”
At least 30 of the defendants are known to be current or former army officers. Of the few who have been identified, one is an active duty army general accused of being head of the military wing of the conspiracy, and another is an opposition political figure said to be leader of the civilian wing.
All are alleged to be members of a ‘terror cell’ officials say is headed by former opposition leader Berhanu Nega. Berhanu was elected mayor of Addis in the disputed 2005 election, but was among those politicians arrested during post-election protests, convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison.
After the group was pardoned, Berhanu went to the United States, where he teaches economics at a university in the state of Pennsylvania.
General Teferra Mammo, one of the 41 detainees accused of plotting coup against the tribal regime in Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Ethiopian Review has learned that wives of the alleged coup suspects have not been spared.
Wzr. Nigisti Fasil, the wife of Colonel Amare Alebel, who is currently in hiding, is among the 41 detainees. The wife and 2-year-old daughter of Shaleqa (Major) Adugna Alemayehu were detained for two weeks.
The wife of Colonel Demissew Anteneh, who was brought from Harar, has been spared, but today for the sixth time she was forced to return to Harar without visiting her husband.
It is feared that some of the officers have been brutally tortured by the British-trained and -financed Woyanne secret police. Their lawyers are not allowed to visit them, and even today inside the court, the lawyers were unable to attend the hearing.
The 41 detainees are thrown in jail accused of being a part of assassination plots by Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice and Freedom.
The detainees include Ato Tsige Habtemariam, an 80-year-old father of Ginbot 7 Secretary General Andargachew Tsige.
The Addis Ababa-based Amharic language newspaper Awramba Times has a detailed report about the court appearance today of the ongoing of secret trial of suspected coup plotters in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
After one month in detention, the suspects are still not allowed to visit their families, and except a few of them, their identities are kept secret.
Today, all of them arrived at the Arada district court in Addis Ababa in covered pickup trucks surrounded by heavily armed federal police troopers. There were over 250 family members outside the court, and none of them is allowed to see the detainees.
Several minutes later, the court ordered the detainees to come back to court in 2 weeks. [read more in Amharic, pdf]
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — It’s been exactly a month now since at least 41 people, including an 80-year-old father of an opposition leader, have been arrested, suspected, allegedly of a coup attempt against the Meles regime.
Within days of their arrest the coup attempt was turned into assassination attempts instead. According to the minister of information Bereket Simon, Ethiopia’s political system is such that it is now immune to coup d’etats.
Since their arrest the suspects never saw their families. But what is now unraveling is that amongst the initial people arrested featured the wife and 2 year old daughter of one the defendants. They were in the central prison for two weeks.
Then the wife of a colonel wanted by the government is also in prison, unable to see her relatives.
Then we found out that people have been arrested from Bahir Dar, Lalibella and Harar, and that most of those arrested are the main bread winners in their families, leaving their loved ones behind without any income.
We saw today the police making every effort for the public not to see who’s coming out of the car at the court, and preventing the defendants to wave at their loved ones. Everyone was shocked by their behavior.
We were told that even before the hearing today, the police knew they were given two more weeks to gather evidence.
Apparently, the police said it was the end of their investigation. If so, why are they given another 2-week to gather evidence?
The blatant abuse of power by the authorities today proved that the whole story is a smoke screen and seems to develop as days go by, like a bad movie script.
All the families have been denied their constitutional right to visit their relatives. No one is willing to grant them, and the government pretends it doesn’t know? Even during the CUD trial this didn’t happen.
As for the shortage of electrical power, it looks more and more as if we are on the verge of a total blackout: all major factories are temporarily disconnected from the electric network, and we’re left in the dark, literally.
(Report by Ethiopian Review associate in Addis Ababa)
Gen. Asaminew Tsige is one of the 41 suspects who are in jail without charge in Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) – A group accused of plotting to overthrow the Ethiopian regime were remanded in custody on Monday again after spending more than one month in prison without any charges or visitation rights, relatives said.
Ethiopian Woyanne regime security forces are holding 41 former and current army personnel from a “terror network” the government says was formed by Berhanu Nega, an opposition leader now teaching economics at a university in the United States.
“They will be held for another two weeks,” a relative who did not want to be named told Reuters outside the court in Addis Ababa. “They were not even charged today.”
The 41 are accused of planning to assassinate senior government figures and blow up public utilities to provoke street protests and overthrow the government.
“The investigation was now complete,” one lawyer said.
Security forces killed about 200 protesters after parliamentary elections in 2005 when the opposition disputed the victory of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government.
More than 100 relatives and supporters were gathered outside the courtroom. Ethiopian authorities have named only two of the prisoners despite calls from international rights groups that they name and charge all 41 detainees.
Neither family members nor lawyers have been able to visit the accused in prison, relatives said.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Ethiopedia.com, an online encyclopedia of Ethiopia, is pleased to announce that world renowned Ethiopian scholar Prof. Ephraim Isaac has joined its team as an editorial adviser.
Ephraim Isaac is a founder and the first professor of Afro-American Studies at Harvard University when the Department was created in 1969. He is author of numerous scholarly works about the Late Second Temple period and Classical Yemenite Jewish and Ethiopic religious literature. He is currently Director of the Institute of Semitic Studies, Princeton, NJ, Chair of the Board of the Horn of Africa Peace & Development Committee, and President of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. He has taught at Princeton University, Hebrew University, University of Pennsylvania, Bard College, and other institutions of higher learning. He has received many honors including the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding’s 2002 Peacemaker in Action Award, honorary degrees from John J. College of CUNY, Addis Ababa University of Ethiopia, NEH Fellowship, among others. He knows seventeen languages, and lectures widely on the subject of “Religion & Warfare”, “Religion and Hate”, etc. and sits on Boards of some twenty-five international religious, educational, and cultural organizations.
Ethiopedia, which is based in Addis Ababa, strives to make knowledge about Ethiopia easily and freely accessible to any one in the world.
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ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA —