The very popular artist Tewodros Kassahun (Teddy Afro) has been
imprisoned after staying for more than one and a half years with the case due to alleged
hit-and-run accident which claimed a victim’s life.
Right after he was charged, he posted a bail, and has been on a concert tour to various cities in Europe and US.
The arrest of Teddy Afro has sparked anger among Ethiopians both at home and overseas. Some hail Teddy as the “true son of Ethiopia.”
The question many Ethiopians ask is not whether anyone who commits a crime should be above the law, and walk way with a crime. The point is the ruling EPRDF regime has no public trust because it is on record for thrown individuals into prison on bogus charges like “corruption” while in reality the individuals are political opponents of the regime.
The question is we have a government that punishes political opponents From experecince, every body
knows that TPLF courts are not free, and they are known by
creating new and very strange cases against true Ethiopians. Once They suspected the
leaders of kinijit in “genocide” against one ethnic group and the most wondering thing is
that one of the top kinijit officials is purely from that ethnic group and many other have
marriage contact directly or indirectly with the ethnic group.
Even if it is not publicized yet, many believe that many Ethiopians are in prisons with the
charge which they don’t know it either. Especially in Oromia region, prisons are here and
there and many are thrown to prison due to alleged connection with OLF. Even if there is no
written evidence, there is rumor that the numbers of people in prison are equivalent to
Ethiopian migrants out of home. Unfair judgments have also been passed in many courts
in favor of government supporters.
All the above stuffs create a very low probability to rely on EPRDF court. So how do we
know that Teddy’s case is a real case? That is the main question raised by many people.
Three major groups are created to judge Teddy`s case. The first and the second group are
some how extremists. The first group says that whether Teddy actually did it or not, the
court will decide on him. This group is totally happy with the system Of Woyanea courts
and they are mainly constituted of supporters of Woyanea. They also ask others to keep
quite and wait the judgment day. The second group believes that Teddy never did it at all.
Their standing points are his smart behavior and his works. The third group is relatively
rational .They ratified that there are possibilities which an accident might happen and
similarly there are possibilities in which woyenea may create the case. These group have
a big doubt about woyanea`s court since they never see justice from the court.
Generally I will try to put some logical implications which show the possibility of
deliberate case creation against the star (Teddy Afro).:
Teddy songs about love, social life are never broadcast over state-owned media despite the popularity of his works.
In other words they are implicitly banned.
He was asked by Sheik Alamudin to participate in Sheraton’s concert and not
singing “Yastesereyal” was a requirement. Since alamudin is one of EPRDF key
persons,it can possibly tell us woyeneas feeling about the star
Teddy was imprisoned in dark room and only five persons are allowed to ask him.
To create positive feeling about the court, they let him to be free from one case.
This is a usual cheating mechanisms when they create new cases against true
Ethiopians.
Even if he showed the unity of Muslims and Christians in Ethiopia using his
“ shemendefer” lyrics he was highly criticized by The Woyanea key man ,The
Patriarch.
These all are evidence for Ethiopians not to rely on the Meles Zenawi regime and
to raise a doubt about the accident. These all are also evidences to see how much the TPLF regime hates Teddy afro.
We all should pray for him. Teddy is the right man for the modernization of Ethiopian
music and he is a very creative and talented artist. I hope he will be free soon and join us.
The writer can be reached at [email protected]
Oslo
