ADDIS ABABA, ethiopia —
The Ethiopian government has freed seven Oromo Liberation Front, or OLF, members who have been in prison for more than four years.
A spokesperson for OLF Lemi Gemechu told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that the seven were released on Thursday from the different prisons where they had been held.
He identified the seven as Abdi Regassa, Dawit Abdeta, Lammi Begna, Michael Boran, Kenessa Ayana, Gada Gabisa and Gada Oljira.
“Before their release, there was a process that took all day,” Lemi said.
“Just now, the Oromo Liberation Front leaders who have been imprisoned for over four years at different sites have been released, including Abdi Regassa, members of the executive committee and other officials well-known among the people, all seven of them, are now released and here at home,” he said.
Abdi is a prominent member of the OLF who once was the commander of the military wing of OLF.
The release took place at Burayu police station outside Addis Ababa.
Some of the released detainees are members of the executive committee while others are central committee and executive members of the OLF.
Lemi said they welcomed their release and congratulated their supporters and those who advocated for their release.
On his Facebook page, Lemi posted a picture of the seven standing with the leader of OLF, Dawud Ibsa.
In a statement issued Thursday on Facebook, OLF said the members were released on bail. OLF said they were detained for “exercising their legitimate political rights” and said their detention was “unjust.”
The opposition members were detained in 2020 for what rights groups at the time described as “purely political” reasons.
The Ethiopian government has not yet officially commented on the release of the opposition figures.
The United States has also welcomed the release of OLF detainees.
“We remain ready to support negotiations aimed at ending the violence and promoting durable peace for all Ethiopians,” the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs said in a post on X.
Human Rights Watch had been calling on the Ethiopian authorities to release the seven senior members of the opposition political party.
Meanwhile, the family of Taye Dendea, the detained former Ethiopian state minister of peace, has expressed their disappointment with the Supreme Court’s decision to deny him bail.
Taye’s wife, Sintayehu Alemayehu, told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that she is sad because of the decision of Ethiopia’s federal Supreme Court.
The court on Wednesday upheld the decision by a lower court to reject the bail request by Taye.
Taye appeared before a court in Addis Ababa on Wednesday to find that his bail request had been rejected. The former state minister was arrested in December last year after he posted comments criticizing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Police accused him of collaborating with groups aiming to destabilize Ethiopia. It also accused him of using social media platforms to endorse violence.