From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Dec 22 2009 - 07:50:36 EST
Five sentenced to death in Ethiopia assassination plot trial
By Aaron Maasho (AFP) – 3 hours ago
ADDIS ABABA — An Ethiopian court on Tuesday sentenced five senior opposition
figures to death and 33 other people to life imprisonment for plotting to
assassinate government officials.
The Ethiopian government claimed in April it had uncovered a plot to kill
government officials and sabotage infrastructure by a group called "Ginbot
7" (May 15) allegedly led by the main opposition challenger in the disputed
2005 elections.
"The following five have committed grave offences and four of them have not
learnt from their previous sentences," Judge Adam Ibrahim of the federal
High Court said.
"Therefore we have been obliged to give the most severe sentences."
Many of the accused were sentenced in absentia, including the alleged
mastermind of the plot, US-exiled Berhanu Nega who served two years in
prison after accusing Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's regime of stealing the
2005 polls.
Twenty-eight of those sentenced were present in the Addis Ababa courtroom,
including Melaku Tefera, a senior opposition member who was among those
sentenced to death.
The death sentences were handed down to the alleged political leaders of the
plot while most of the 33 slapped with life in prison are active or retired
army officers.
Death sentences are regularly pronounced in the east African nation -- the
second most populous in sub-Saharan Africa -- but rarely carried out. The
last execution is believed to have taken place in 2007.
The defendants' relatives and lawyers said they would appeal the sentences.
"I will appeal, I'm not satisfied with the decision. It's harsh, I hope it
will be reversed after we appeal it," said Tidenekyalesh Tesfa, whose
client, wealthy businessman Getu Worku, was sentenced to life and had his
property confiscated.
The relative of another army officer who was sentenced to life in jail
struggled to hold back her tears after the sentences were pronounced.
"It's a pity. There is no justice in Ethiopia... the evidence was
incomplete," she told AFP on condition of anonymity. "He served his country,
he sacrificed his whole life for the military... but for what?"
A total of 46 people were formally charged in the case on variety of
accusations ranging from conspiracy to dismantle constitutional order,
weapons smuggling as well as recruiting and arming opposition members.
The trial, one of the most high-profile in the country's recent history,
comes against a tense political backdrop, ahead of general elections
scheduled for May next year.
Rights groups have accused Meles' regime of instilling a climate of fear
ahead of the polls.
"The spectre of the 2005 crackdown on the opposition and on the independent
press is resurfacing in the run-up to the May 2010 general elections," the
Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in a recent
statement.
A senior US official also voiced concern last month at what he described as
a "reduction in political space and the ability of opposition parties to
operate."
Some 200 people died in violence that erupted following the disputed results
of the 2005 elections.
Berhanu Nega's now-defunct opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy had
won an unprecedented number of seats.
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