Ethiopian Review sources in Addis Ababa are reporting that opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa has been released today.
Birtukan was thrown in jail by the ethnic apartheid junta in Ethiopia almost 2 years ago, Dec. 29, 2010.
Birtukan left Kality jail at 11:15 AM local time today. She was greeted by family members, friends, and hundreds of supporters who were waiting for her outside the prison.
After learning the news of her release, Ethiopian civic, political and media groups in the Diaspora held a meeting and issued a statement condemning the Woyanne junta for illegally arresting her in the first place. They also expressed through the statement their demand for the release of all the other prisoners of conscience who are languishing in prisons throughout the country (full text).
Reuters’ Barry Malone reports:
Ethiopia[‘s ruling junta] released the country’s most prominent opposition leader from jail on Wednesday, four months after the government’s landslide win in elections criticised by Western powers. Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge, is the leader of Ethiopia’s biggest opposition party, the Unity for Democracy and Justice.
She left a prison in the capital Addis Ababa in a car with her daughter and mother, a Reuters witness said. Supporters said she was going to her home.
Critics of the government say she was jailed because she was the main threat to the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) at the May 23 election.