Ethiopia says considering pardon of sentenced opposition leaders

July 17, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — Dozens of oppositions members sentenced to heavy jail terms in a judgement that has provoked a wave of international criticism have filed requests for pardon, a senior official said Tuesday.

The Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic’s (EFDR) Pardon Board has said it has started examining the request letter for pardon by leaders and members of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), who were sentenced yesterday “for attempting to change the constitutional system through unlawful way, for the wrongs they committed following the May 2005 general elections;” the Ethiopian TV reported

“The government received the request for pardon by the detainees almost three weeks ago,” Bereket Simon, a spokesman in the prime minister’s office, told AFP.

On Monday, Ethiopia’s high court issued heavy jail terms, including 35 life sentences, to a group of opposition members accused of fomenting rebellion after the disputed 2005 polls.

The board said 38 of 71 people who requested for amnesty had met the criteria. The main criteria is that those who can request for amnesty are only those who have been sentenced.

Those sentenced in the wake of violence in the capital during the 2005 elections included Hailu Shawl and Bernahu Nega, two senior leaders of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party.

Four journalists were also jailed. Their appeals had been passed on to the pardon board, but the final decision was down to President Girma Woldegiorgis, said the spokesman. Excerpts from the defendants’ plea were read on the public ETV channel.

“We the undersigned leaders and members of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy have come to realise as mistaken, and thus regret, the attempts we made to get rid of the constitutionally established government functions through the use of unconstitutional means for the disagreements that had emanated from the 2005 elections,” said the excerpt.

“We stand in supplication before the government and the people of Ethiopia and ask, with admission to, and regret for the mistake we have committed, for forgiveness as is customary,” it added.

A lawyer for the defendants had said in June that his clients had signed a document admitting they had made mistakes during the bloody elections. The United States, a key supporter of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s regime, urged the state to show clemency.

“As a matter of trying to bring together the Ethiopian people and bring an end to this particular chapter of political turmoil, we would urge the Ethiopian authorities to consider — strongly consider clemency for these individuals,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders organisation issued a statement in which it “voiced outrage at the federal high court’s decision.”

The London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International also protested the sentences and called for the defendants’ release.

“On the basis of the information we have, most — if not all — of those sentenced are prisoners of conscience imprisoned on account of their opinions, who have not used or advocated violence and should therefore be immediately and unconditionally released,” Erwin van der Borght, Director of Amnesty’s Africa Programme, said in a statement.

Earlier this year, the Ethiopian parliament approved a report thatsaid 193 civilians and six policemen died during the unrest in 2005 in one of the darkest chapters in the country’s recent past.

Officially, the polls were won by the coalition which has ruled the country since 1991 but the results were challenged by the opposition.

(AFP/ST)