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Kangaroo court denied defendants the right to speak before ruling guilty

Posted on by Elias Kifle

Report from the court room

The second criminal bench of the federal high court has on Monday, June 12, 2007, passed a guilty verdict against most of the defendants in the Hailu Shawel case file. The timing of the ruling was a complete surprise to all of us.

Here is what happened on that fateful day in an impoverished corner of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

As the judges came in to the court room with rather imperious expressions, the defendants rose to receive them as is the customary practice in any court room. Usually, the defendants sit after the judges, but to the mild surprise of every one, this mid morning Monday, they remained firmly in their standing position. This certainly caught the attention of the three judges. The senior judge, Adil Ahmed, skewed to his right to confer with Leuel Gebremariam, the judge that sits to his right. They whispered for a few seconds, while the third judge, Mohamed Abdulsani, stared straight ahead with one of his perfectly attuned blank stares.

Judge Adil chose not to ask why the defendants were not sitting as usual.

“Today’s court session is to deliberate on…” began Judge Adil, trying his best not to look in the direction of the defendants. But the defendants would have none of it, “We have an appeal to present to the court” said Berhanu Nega in an authoritative voice. Judge Adil veered angrily in the direction of Berhanu. He did not look amused at being interrupted: “You can not speak when you want to. The court is explaining today’s agenda. We shall first hear from the correctional facility. Has the court order been carried out?” said a flustered Adil in a frantic gesture to control the court room. Berhanu did not respond.

A representative of the prison at Kaliti immediately took center stage: “…The defendants had been given an opportunity to hold a half day conference as ordered by the court, but they refused citing the absence of Engineer Hailu Shawel (he was in a hospital at the time). They were given a second opportunity, and a half day conference was carried out as ordered by the court. They have also seen all the videos as prescribed by the court”

The reaction of the defendants against the statement by the prison representative was striking for its spontaneity. They protested in unison: “We have a petition to present to the court. We need to be heard…”

But Judge Adil would have none of it, and his refusal to listen exasperated the prisoners.

Dr Yakob Hailemariam was particularly vocal, repeatedly referring to the law in support of his appeal to be heard. “We won’t listen!.” (“Anadametem!” was what he said in Amharic)”

Sshot back Judge Adil: “The court had ordered that you should hold a half day conference. That the order had been carried out has been confirmed by the correctional facility…”

A second burst of spontaneous protest interrupted the judge: “We did not watch (the videos)…” cried out the prisoners.

Adil was on the verge of losing control of the court, a fact that was not lost to Judge Leuel, who interjected to warn the defendants in a severe tone of voice: “Let’s listen to each other. It has now become a standard practice to hold this court in contempt. We should not waste time by punishing you for contempt of court…”

Dr. Berhanu Nega responded to Leuel’s threat: “But you should listen to us. Listen to us (Admetun!)”…

Leuel did not let him finish: “Sit down. You have not been granted permission to speak…”

Berhanu stood his ground by remaining in his standing position. For a second, it looked as if though Berhanu would be held in contempt.

Judge Adil intervened: “Let him remain standing. Defendants are supposed to stand, not sit, during court proceedings. If you stand [speaking directly to Dr Berhanu Nega], it means you are respecting the law. Doctor, you can not speak when you want to. This is a court.”

Berhanu was not cowed: “Listen to us. We are the defendants. Let us speak.”

Dr Yacob Hailemariam, too, spoke out: “We have a right to be heard. Listen to us.”

Judge Adil responded angrily: “You yourselves are the ones who said that you will not engage in a defense.”

Judge Leuel continued: “You did not submit your evidences to the court.”

Berhanu did not disagree with him: “Listen to us. It is not about evidences…”

But it got him no where.

“Today’s agenda is to deliberate on how the defendant’s evidences will be presented to the court. After ruling on matters related to the evidences, we will address other issues. The court is adjourned for ten minutes,” said Judge Adil suddenly, and the three judges stood up and hastily walked out of the court.

The ten minutes turned out to be two hours, and when they returned they had a surprise for everyone.

Judge Adil immediately started reading a written statement: “We have a ruling concerning the defendants who have so far failed to submit to the court a listing of their evidences. The court has repeatedly ruled that the defendants should submit their evidences to the registrar’s office. However, the defendants have all along insisted that the court should not be presiding over their case. The law clearly stipulates that defendants should submit their evidences before the beginning of the trial. That they have not done so to date, signals that they do not have a defense to submit. As such, we find all but nine of the defendants guilty of the charges brought against them by the prosecutor [This is a very brief synopsis of the ruling].”

There was a stunned silence in the court after the ruling. It was totally unexpected. And so ended this Monday’s court session, abruptly and dramatically.

As we drove back to the center of Addis, we gazed out of our car’s window towards the residents of Addis, who went about their ways entirely oblivious to the historical significance of this Monday.

23 thoughts on “Kangaroo court denied defendants the right to speak before ruling guilty”

  2. What about the report of the investigation? What about the international observers’ report of election?

    That is why the court has no standard of its own.

    Goog luck our little Ethiopia.

  3. One only should only contrast between what the Woyaness have been doing, and what the democratic movement in general has done, to understand why we failed our leaders? Although the weyannes cause has no foundation except unadulterated hate, the inaptitude the pro- democracy movement has been exhibiting for so long made Woyanee to stand. And still we are galvanized to repeat the same kind of mistakes again, and again. We can not simple repeat what we have been doing so far and expect a different result. Woyanees are practical; our performance has been far from it. If we believe only demonstration would bring a change, we are being emotional and woyanny loves it. Woynee has some practical tools they use to neutralize the massive demonstrations specially here in USA and in Europe. One of effective tools has been Almodin. As you know in the west Money speaks louder, and Alamudin to protect his joint investment with Woyanne is lobbying every where- discreetly. It is not coincidental that both Woyanne and Alamodin uses the same lawyers to harass oppositions and individuals here in America. Actually more than the Woyannes, neutralizing Alamuding is going to be a difficult task. What is the untapped resource we have to galvanize support of the Democratic struggle? It is us the people, but not as scattered as we are now but if organize. We don

  5. Actually, the two judges-Adil and Mohammed are simply puppets. The main cadre who is instrumental in this court decision is Leul, an arrogant TPLF member who has direct contact with top EPRDF officials including Bereket and Sebhat. Likewise, the supreme court is also led by another puppet-Kemal Bedri. However, the real decisive man is again Menbere-another TPLF cadre closely related with TPLF leaders including Meless.

    Thus, please don’t expect any fair and free trial from those kind of handpicked ignorant-belly cadres.

  7. A repond to Habtom,
    You saund a retarded Shaebya loyal. You ignor to see the evidence and start to express your own evidence. Please try to understand we the Ethipian do not serve to anyone unless we are convice on the matter.

  9. Get Up and Stand Up,

    My fellow Ethiopians,we should be able to say enough is enough,we shouldn’t allow these opposition leaders suffer in prison any more.If EPRDF’s verdict is to take place, it would be a shame to all ethiopians.We must not allow Meles and his supporters to do whatever they want.Time for civil disobedience.Let’s start by putting all the obstacels we can for obstracting the preparation for the celebration of the millenium.

    I propose the idea of establishing a web page where every concerned ethiopian can put forward an idea for civil disobedience,

    Peace and Love

  10. it breaks my heart to see the very educated and the elites are treated in such inhumane way. beside the woyane government and court, i blame the rest of Cud leaders for failing to keep the fire burning. instead of blaming each other and distracting their own party, they should have follwed the very foot step of thos in prison to keep the hope alive. i think the Ethiopian people are not reacting to this verdict because they are in the dark about the progress of CUD party. if they were kept informed and encouraged to question every move the government is making. then the out come of this verdict reaction would have been different. So show us you are with us ( the people) and together let us know the government the verdicts are bogus.

  11. Our elected leaders of ethiopia from Zenawi’s Kangaroo court has found guility. This is one of the most outrageous verdict ever held in the history of ethiopia.
    zenawi “budgy eyed monster” is going in the wrong direction.He is digging his own grave by himself.
    Our elected leaders are all great patriots of the people of ethiopia and there sacrfice is not in vain.
    Death to the tryannt.
    Jyigzaw

  13. Fellow Ethiopians:

    Weyanne is determined to repeat what it has done to Prof. Asrat. We let down Prof. Asrat, and he died an abnormal death, and we again let down the Kinijit leaders and supporters, and Weyanne is all set to repeat that same hateful and barbaric act against Kinijit and Ethiopia.

    We did very little since Novembert 2005 though Kinijit Support groups were as energitic as ever to mpve forward, but they lacked an effective, patriotic and democaratic leadership.

    Sebhat told us recently that he is, and has always been, along with his accomplices in TPLF, against Ethiopia, and they continue to rule us. In the mean time, we continue to do what they want us to do, and even beat up our own people, like Muluneh Eyouel, upon the orders of the same anti-Ethiopian Meles, Sebhat and Bereket. They see no strong, credible and concerted effort to stop their continuous crminal acts. That has encouraged them to continue with their diabolical acts against our leaders and against ourt Motherland.

    The USA continues to generously prop up the tyrants under the pretext of fighting terrorism and appers to be satisfied to nurture the development of an environemnt of terrorism, despair and frustration, resulting in increasingly more anti-Americanism in the centre of Ethiopia, in addition to that in Somalia; EU Commission and Europena nations, including Great Britain and Germany, see their best interests with the Ethiopian tyrants and so does the World Bank and even Africa development Bank, which have all come back with billions of Birr in loans and grants. Apaprently, democracy and human rights are practically irrelevant to Blair, Bush or even to Merkel.

    Hence, we have to fend for ourselves since Ethiopia appears to be abandoned by most powerful democratic nations of Europe and America. True, US Congress and EU Parliament are solidly behind us, but we need to assist them by making the greater push on the ground, and do it fast.

    Kinijit Diaspora was divided when it had the sacred duty to defend Kinijit, other prisoners and Ethiopai; it wasted all the time on infighting right up to June 9, 2007.

    Thank God, they are back again together, and, hopefully, ready to provide effective and practical leadership in the defense of our leaders, democracy and Ethiopia.

    What we need to do is to go into urgent action to stop the Weyanne madness in a manner that they understaand best. If we do that we can still save our leaders andf Ethiopia ! We need make only a small but determined push and Weyanne will then be either removed, or, still better, it will bend and come back to the negotiating table with the free leaders of Kinijit.

  14. I am one of the residents of the city, Addis Ababa. I want to tell you that I am tired of listening and reading to different views of the people who are on our side. We are tired of the governments measures taken against us, the Addis Ababa people. We are being punished just because we said enough to TPLF and gave our vote to our beloved leaders on 15 May 2005. At this time, there are many people who go to work and shools without breakfast on foot and return to bed in the same condition because of the existing EPRDF made (artificial) economic problems aimed at the residents of Addis Ababa.Everybody knows that the tyrants are taking retaliatory measures on us and are ready to do even more (that is their nature). House rent is very expensive. a two room private house costs up to 1000 birr, without exaguration. I have a neighbour who earns 500 biir per month and have a wife (who doesn’t have work) and two children. 50 kilo teff is around 300 birr. There is also house rent to be paid every month, his children should also go to school. Please look at what kind of miserable life the majority of the people are leading.We are punished by weyanes together with our leaders eventhough we are outside the prison cells.

  15. The shortsighted and those looking something good with little or if possible no effort at all acts as if they are disappointed, frustrated and sad about TPLF behaviour. people, if you really see the short and as well as long term result in our country with determine and brave thinking and action, TPLF (most of them are from ADWA) are digging own grave in front of the international community.
    The ethnic policy which is to be found nowhere in the world, dividing the country sharing it with OLF according to their own interest as a result they are occupying vast land which belongs to all Ethiopians, deporting thousands of Ethiopians with Eritrean origin inhuman ways, Ethnic cleansing and massacre committed by OLF under TPLF command, limiting the Addis Ababa’s territory as worst as it becomes like a special prison while the city is the city of all and need to have enough territory to facilitate its development and curve the cost of life producing by itself, land locking the oldest country of ours and there many others crimes to be mentioned committed by TPLF in our country.
    Even we gather our efforts together and use it in a smart way, the crimes committed by TPLF since the 2005 elections are enough to defeat them in the international arena. Mass intimidation and Vote rigging, all election results where the international community were present went to the oppositions says a lot about the election itself. All cities and towns went to the oppositions says also a lot about the election results. The massacre committed against the peaceful demonstration and the investigation committee found the illegal govt guilty about. The Sebhat Nega confession of hostility and they are at war against Ethiopia ever since from dedebit, the Sebhat Nega confession about their business empire that isolated all Ethiopians including ordinary Tigrians, Tsehay confession and the TPLF court conducted by criminals (Muslims) decision that is the laugh including to law students world wide, are saying who really TPLF gangs most of them from adwa including meles, Sebhat, Seyoum, Tshay abrham yayeh and others are.
    We need to use their miserable actions and confessions against themselves. If we know how to use it, they are serving us to berry them forever with their family and associates soon. Stop saying sad, disappointed, frustrated, and the likes that are behaviours from weak and lazy people. What do you expect from TPLF gangs to do for you while you are doing nothing special for yourself. This criminal gangs need to be treated as criminals. Don’t expect anything positive from them. Use their illegal, negative and wrong actions against themselves.

  16. We know that the ETHn political high
    court CONSTITUTIONs how to install, who control them, which type of persons (the faith Cadres) are assigned, who is assigned the persons (the faith Cadres), their verdict how much was deviated from ethics.
    The faith wayane Cadres Cadre Adil Ahmad trained in Cadre Training College or Stone Factory College or the so called civil service college about tactics of cadre. He did not learn at all.
    So we don

  18. The crime against Ethiopia by woyane in the name of Tigry becomes limitless. It is a well calculated execution plan that would affect mainly Ethiopians with Tigry origin the generations to come.
    Since 2001(After Sye) more than 90% high TPLF officials are from ADWA and the surrounding. These evils counting with no more two digits are committing tremendous crimes in Ethiopia that its poison fruit will be harvested in Tigry the coming many, many years. And I feel sorry about the majority of Ethiopian living in Tigray whom don’t understand what is going on behind TPLF minds against them.

    Take Abhram Yayeh. He is busy creating Tigri-Tigrigna that has never been before. He ignores Tigry has other Ethnic groups and Eritrea also has 9 Ethnic groups. 3/4 Eritrean territories are occupied by Tigre (almost 100% Muslims). Kunama occupies the only fertile territory Eritrea has. Saho has some fertile land and are living around Asmara. Rashidas live at the sea cost North of matsawa and the Afars south of matsawa towards Asab.

    So, what kind of greater Tigry is he and the rest going to create. We are hearing TPLF going to declare Independent Tigry. I wish them to do it as soon as possible. The people called Tigrigna are occupying the worst, hostile and stony piece of land in Eritrea. They are not bordering to the seacoast. What kind of Tigri- Tirigna will be if the plans is only with them? If Tigry decides to be with Tigrigna, then the Afars are also going to unite and remain part of Ethiopia. Kunamas and sahos always wants to be part of ethiopia. Remember, the fertile and vast land Tigry has today is belongs to Gonder and wollo. They will never ever remain part of Tigry if they want to declare so called independent Tigry with their stony territory.

    The point is that ordinary Ethiopians with Tigrian origin need to wake up now for the sake of themselves and mainly to their children. The so called independent tigry will never work. The easiest and best way to them and all of us is that be united under one flag and fight the Ethiopian enemy, TPLF (your representatives to rule Ethiopia with evil spirit).
    I think Ethiopians need to know exactly how Tigry territory and people looks like for centuries and known by UN from its creation before woyane took power by force since 1991. Ethiopians also needs to know the Eritrean territory and Ethnic groups living there. When you do that, you will understand easily, TPLF’s and its supporters are bluffing about Tigry being independent or being with Eritrea or with Tigrigna will never materialized.
    They will go nowhere. There will be no good life to them other than with in Ethiopia.

  19. It is clear that these people(CUD LEADERS) are innocent. They firmly stand to change the face of Ethiopia however, we Ethiopian developed the habit of get oppressed and keep oppressed. This must be stop right now. We have to stand together to change our country. No more oppression Ethiopia must be freed form oppressors.

  21. Yepoletica t’gab yenefachew yewoyane cadrewoch ,ke egziabher betach yesew lij fiteh agegnebetalehu bilo yemitemamenbetn tequam ye gif gebeya aderegut.
    If any was expecting justice from cangaroo courts he was so naive ;the best solution :let’s keep firm and close.
    at the end truth will win.
    G

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