Ethiopian court continues trial for university professor
April 11, 2007 (NORFOLK) — A former Norfolk State University professor, labeled by international human rights groups as a “prisoner of conscience,” will have to defend himself against charges potentially punishable by death, an Ethiopian court has decided.
Yacob Hailemariam, 62, has written to supporters that he and other defendants won’t defend themselves because they don’t believe the government trial is legitimate.
Hailemariam, who taught business for almost 20 years at the Norfolk college, returned to his native Ethiopia in 2005 to run for a parliament seat as a reformer. Civil unrest followed the election, and he was jailed that October and charged with treason and attempted genocide, among other accusations.
The court, which finished its ruling this week, decided that prosecutors presented enough evidence to require that the trial continue for about half of 131 accused individuals and organizations, according to State Department officials Tuesday who declined to be named per their department’s policy.
Some charges were dropped, but the surviving charges involve “outrage against the constitution” and obstructing the government’s exercise of its powers, the officials said. The only court date set is April 30, for a procedural matter.
Hailemariam and others have denied the charges, calling them politically motivated. The State Department monitors the trial daily, officials said.
“They’ve spent 1-1/2 years on principle, hopefully for something,” Hailemariam’s wife, Tegist, said Tuesday. The family lives in Virginia Beach. “What can you say? You have to move forward. You have to try.”
(The Virginian-Pilot)
Yilkeku
Ethiopian court continues trial for university professor
The State Department seems to have insider’s information direct from the horse’s mouth, i.e. Meles Zenawi, by telling us that, although two of the charges were dropped, the court “decided that prosecutors presented enough evidence to require that the trial continue for about half of 131 accused individuals and organizations”.
The State Department officials also seem only too keen to point out that the surviving charges involve “outrage against the constitution” and “obstructing the government’s exercise of its powers”, knowing full well that these “prisoners of conscience” had neither the arms nor the inclination to accomplish what they have been charged with. The leaders of the opposition CUD party had tried to the best of their ability to negotiate with Zenawi, but he knew that that would have meant the end of his rule, so he took the hard line. As we all know the court proceedings were a sham; false witnesses being tutored on what to say and getting it wrong. The TPLF/EPRDF invariably (with no imagination) applied the same methods of producing false witnesses as was done to the renowned surgeon, Prof. Asrat Woldeyes.
The State Department officials are also aware that these “prisoners of conscience” have already put out a long statement on why they would not be defending themselves against the false accusations, which obviously are of a political bent.
New York