Ethiopia frees 38 jailed opposition figures
July 20, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia on Friday released 38 opposition figures, days after sparking an international outcry by slapping them with heavy jail terms over incidents that followed disputed 2005 polls.
The group was pardoned by President Girma Woldegiorgis on Thursday and witnesses and relatives told AFP that they were released from their prison in Kaliti, 25 kilometres (16 miles) from the capital.
“They have been freed and are heading to Addis,” a witness said on condition of anonymity.
On Monday, Ethiopia’s high court had slapped heavy jail terms on 43 opposition figures accused of seeking to “overthrow constitutional rule” in the aftermath of disputed 2005 legislative polls.
Thirty-five of them had received life sentences — five of them in absentia — while eight others had been given prison terms ranging from 18 months to 18 years. The group included four opposition journalists.
Moments before their release, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi himself held a news conference to announce that the group of 38 had been pardoned.
“The pardon is total. The persons concerned will be freed and their constitutional rights will be restored,” Meles said.
He stressed nevertheless that they would be thrown back in jail if they did not “respect the constitution and the rule of law.”
The pardon affects the 38 opposition figures who were physically present at their trial and signed a document asking for mercy, and not the five sentenced in abstentia.
The sentences had triggered a barrage of international criticism.
The United States, a key foreign ally of Meles’ regime, had urged clemency while foreign rights groups and press freedom organisations had condemned the sentences as outrageous and a setback for the country’s democratic credentials.
The Ethiopian government said a day after the sentences were handed down that it was looking into pardon bids filed by the defendants in which they admitted to mistakes.
“They have recognised they did some mistakes and have committed themselves not to do it again and to respect the constitution and play by the the rules of the game,” Meles said.
The prime minister said such behaviour by the opposition would “reinforce the democratic process in Ethiopia.”
Among those sentenced to life were Hailu Shawl and Bernahu Nega, two senior leaders of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party.
The 2005 elections saw the Horn of Africa country’s opposition make its largest gains but claim it was robbed of victory by widespread government-sponsored fraud.
Earlier this year, the Ethiopian parliament approved a report which said 193 civilians and six policemen died during the unrest in 2005 in one of the darkest chapters in the country’s recent past.
(AFP)