Ethiopia: Life sentence for blogger, prison for journalists

Elias Kifle, exiled Ethiopian editor of the
Washington-based opposition website Ethiopian
Review, was handed a life sentence in absentia
today, which followed a 2007 life sentence given to him also in absentia on
charges of treason for his coverage of the government’s brutal repression of
2005 post-election protests, CPJ research shows. A court in the capital, Addis Ababa,
sentenced Reeyot Alemu, a columnist with the independent weekly Feteh
, and Woubshet Taye, deputy editor of the now-defunct weekly Awramba Times, to 14 years in prison and
33,000 birrs (US$1,500), news reports said.

“The
life sentence for Elias Kifle and the prison sentences for Reeyot Alemu and
Woubshet Taye are based on their writings about political dissent. This verdict
has little to do with justice,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed
Keita. “We condemn this politicized prosecution designed to cow critical voices
into silence and call on the Supreme Court to reverse all the convictions.”

The
three journalists were charged in September
with lending support to an underground network of banned opposition groups,
which has been criminalized under the country’s 2009 antiterrorism
law.
Alemu and Taye were arrested in June and held for weeks on government
accusations of plotting to sabotage telephone and electricity lines before they
were charged. In the trial, government prosecutors
presented as evidence intercepted emails and phone calls between the
journalists, as well as more than 25 Ethiopian
Review articles
on the activities of opposition groups, CPJ research shows.

Eskinder Nega, another Ethiopian
blogger, has been imprisoned since September and could be sentenced to death if
convicted of similar politicized terrorism charges in connection with his
coverage of banned opposition groups.