By Lula Ahrens | ROI

A resident of the Dutch town of Haarlem was sentenced to death by an Ethiopian court on Tuesday. He was found guilty of disrespect for the Ethiopian constitution and, along with four other people, for attempting a coup. But Mesfin Aman is not worried about his safety. “I have an official refugee status, and the Dutch government knows what’s going on in my home country.”

Four of the five people charged have been convicted in absentia after fleeing abroad. Melaku Teffera, however, is being held in Ethiopia. “I am very sorry to say that he will have to face his sentence,” Mesfin Aman told Radio Netherlands. “I’ve talked to the other four convicts. They are safe, like me, because they have the same refugee status. One of them is in the UK, the other three are in the US.”

Mesfin has lived in the Netherlands as a fugitive since 2006. He is currently finishing his MBA at the Amsterdam Business School. “After the 2005 election protests, in which I took part, the UN High Commissioner invited me to stay in the Netherlands as a political refugee. I have an invited refugee status and a residence permit. I do not have the Dutch nationality yet. For that I’ll have to wait for another two years.”

The 30-year-old student heard the news on Tuesday when he was called by Andargachew Tsige, one of his fellow defendants. He then checked the news on-line and realized it was true. Aman is confident that he won’t have to face his sentence: “The Dutch government follows the standard international rules and would never extradite me. They know what’s going on in Ethiopia.”

Aman has been politically active since he was a teenager. He chose to study political science and fight for democracy, despite the obvious dangers. “The government considers all opinions different from their own as disrespect for the constitution and a threat to their existence. They use phrases like ‘attempted coup’ to justify their killing of opposition members.”

In 2001, he spent several months in solitary confinement after he took part in a protest against the regime of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi. In the aftermath of the elections in 2005, he again spent several weeks in solitary confinement, after which he was released on bail. He escaped to Kenya, and then to the Netherlands.

“That same year, the Ethiopian government sentenced me for life along with several other opposition leaders. The others were later pardoned and were asked to sign a pardon letter. Because I was in the Netherlands, I didn’t know of the letter and couldn’t sign. That’s why I have now been given this death sentence. It’s a bizarre story.”

The refugee has not yet spoken to the Dutch government about his death sentence, but he is planning to contact the Foreign Affairs Ministry to inform them.

The most important factor in the Ethiopian government’s behaviour, he says, is “ethnic domination”.
“In Ethiopia, we have 80 million people from five ethnic groups. Political power is concentrated in the hands of one ethnic group, which accounts for around 6 percent of the population. That causes a huge political imbalance.”

ADDIS ABABA (BBC) — An Ethiopian court has sentenced five people to death and 33 others to life in prison for planning to assassinate government officials.

Prosecutors had said the convicted were part of the Ginbot 7 (15 May) group led by Berhanu Nega, a US-based dissident.

He was among those sentenced to death, as was opposition leader Melaku Tefera.

Mr Melaku was present in the Addis Ababa courtroom with 27 other accused. Some of the defendants have said they were tortured into confessing.

Convicting the men in November, Judge Adem Ibrahim said the court had not been convinced of the torture allegations.

The authorities have said they found weapons, including land mines, at the men’s homes when they were arrested in April.

Army officers sentenced

“The… five have committed grave offences and four of them have not learnt from their previous sentences,” said Judge Adem passing down the sentences.

“Therefore, we have been been obliged to give the most severe sentences.”

Relatives of the men broke down in the courtroom as the sentences were read out, says the BBC’s Uduak Amimo in Addis Ababa.

The death sentences were reserved for what the court called the political leaders of the plot, while those sentenced to life imprisonment were active or former military officers, AFP news agency said.

Lawyers for the defence said they would appeal.

Andergachew Tsege, secretary general of Ginbot 7 and one of those sentenced to death in absentia, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme the ruling was not unexpected.

“It is not surprising to us and probably to the people of Ethiopia,” he said.

“We know the price of freedom – the preservation of rights always forces us to pay sacrifice and if that sacrifice means to be sentenced to death, so be it.”

‘Ethnic apartheid’

The authorities have long accused Mr Berhanu of spearheading opposition plots.

He was arrested after being elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005 and jailed for treason.

He was pardoned in 2007 and left for the United States, where he began teaching economics at a university.

Ginbot 7 was named after the date of the 2005 elections, which Meles Zenawi’s party won, but which the opposition said was rigged.

Mr Berhanu denies engaging in armed struggle against the government, but Mr Andergachew said attempts to engage in peaceful politics had failed to deliver.

“The political space in Ethiopia for peaceful struggle has been killed by Meles, so we have no choice,” Mr Andergachew said.

“As long as they [the government] refuse to listen, we will use any means possible to force them to listen or to force them out of office.”

Rights groups have expressed concern that the government is trying to silence dissent before Ethiopia holds its next national election in June 2010.

Mr Andergachew said Ginbot 7 was angered that political and economic life in Ethiopia was dominated by Mr Meles’s Tigrean ethnic group.

“They are building what we call an ethnic apartheid in Ethiopia,” he said.