Ethiopia charges 151 people for destabilising state security
Mar 21, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia’s federal high court has charged 151 people for alleged roles in opposition protests last in November year that the prosecution said were aimed at destabilising the nation, officials said.
According to reports, the court charged a group of 33 people for the offence on Monday.
They said “The defendants accepted and acted up on the call made by the Coalition for Unity and Democracy [Party] (CUDP), bent on dismantling the constitutional order through force.”
The court also charged another group of 118 people on Saturday of attempting to “dismantle the constitutional order in Ethiopia after the civilian unrest allegedly masterminded by the CUDP”.
However, it was not immediately clear who the accused were, although other official sources said they were mainly CUDP members as well as journalists and activists.
The court was trying 129 people, including nearly the entire CUDP leadership and several journalists, on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the constitutional government.
The charges related to violent protests that engulfed the nation after last May’s polls, which were won by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling coalition and disputed by the opposition on claims that they were marred by massive irregularities.
The polls last May were initially regarded as the country’s most open. But after opposition groups made unprecedented gains, the post-election process was marred by “intimidation, mass arrests, killing of demonstrators and opposition personnel”, the EU observer mission said in its final election report.
In June, at least 36 people were killed in election-related violence in Addis Ababa, and more than 40 others died in November.
Security forces detained thousands of people as the government accused the opposition of planning an insurrection. More than 100 people, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists, have been charged with treason, genocide and other crimes.
Opposition politicians said they only called for peaceful protests, and diplomats and activists accused the government of conducting a brutal crackdown.
Meles Zenawi, prime minister, had been a favourite of donors and was appointed to the UK’s Commission for Africa. But the former Marxist rebel leader described an earlier EU report “as a pack of lies” and “garbage”.
(ST/FT/AFP)