“The defendants will appear in court Wednesday when the charges will be declared invalid by the prosecution,” a senior legal analyst told Ethiomedia on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

“When the prosecution calls for the cancellation of the charges, it means no crime was ever committed,” he said.

The expert cautiously warned that the ongoing process was completely different from a second type of releasing prisoners, and that is when convicts who have already been serving time are granted amnesty by the head of state, i.e. the president, on special occasions such as X-Mas or New Year’s Day.

Some sources mixed up stuff and said the prisoners were being released because they asked for amnesty by taking the blame.

The legal expert dismissed such allegations as baseless.

“There was a unanimous decision by the opposition leaders,” said the legal expert, “and such decision was reached as a result of maintainging unity in purpose.”

News of the release of the opposition leaders was received warmely by most sections of the society, although how the government and the opposition leaders would work together to reverse the derailed democratic movement is a matter of wait and see.

Earlier on Tuesday, Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post had quoted anonymous US and government officials as saying those who signed the agreement could be freed within days.

The paper said negotiations on the prisoners’ release were conducted despite their conviction last week on charges including “outrage against the constitution” and aggravated high treason in a trial that human rights groups and some U.S. officials condemned as a sham. The prisoners are to be sentenced in July and could face the death penalty.

The prisoners’ families have accused the United States of softening its criticism of Ethiopia’s human rights record because the country is a key military ally in the fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa.

The 2005 elections were generally hailed as free and fair, and the opposition made significant gains. But when opposition members took to the streets to protest some of the results. Ethiopian security forces, including sharpshooters, responded with massive force, arresting about 30,000 protesters and killing at least 193 people, the Post said.

The release of CUD leaders would break a two-year-old stalemate between the government in power as well as the nation of 70 million people that had sought change at the May 2005 elections.

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Editor’s Note

Ethiomedia welcomes the news with a great sense of relief for a nation that has had its share of turmoil besetting the Horn of Africa. Ethiopian opposition leaders, consisting of the nation’s top-notch academics and dignitaries, command a huge respect among the Ethiopian diaspora. The post-prison freedom of CUD leaders – and if the agreement is paving the way for a true reconciliation and the good of the nation that doesn’t restrict any of the political and democratic rights of the CUD leaders – would initially be gauged by how much the leaders are free to travel within and outside of the country, without the paparazzi of government agents.