Prosecutor concludes evidence against CUD defendants

By Simegnish Yekoye

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - The trial of jailed Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUD ) leaders, journalists and civic association defendants ended having heard testimonies on Wednesday, after the prosecutor dropped some 289 witnesses.
The prosecutor did say he had around 360 witnesses to prove his charges of attempt to genocide, treason and conspiracy to overthrow the constitutionally elected government by violence against the 111 defendants.
“We dropped the rest 289 witnesses because their testimonies will be a repetition of what has been heard so far and it will only be tedious to the court,” said Shimeles Kemal, the chief prosecutor.

After the hearing started on October 25, 2005, the prosecutor has brought 78 witnesses among whom 59 were heard as the others were dropped for the simple reason that their testimony was the same.
The next step will be investigating into all the evidences and decide if the defendants need to defend themselves or not, or if they should be released free, according to Judge Adil Mohammed. “If there is any admissible objection, it should be presented in writing within 15 days,” he added.

However, the prosecutor presented other 15 new witnesses on Wednesday, of whom13 testified, bringing the total number of witnesses to 72.
Some of the new witnesses were presented to explain the amount of damage caused due to the violence in June and October, which the prosecutor said, was instigated, perpetrated and led by the defendants.”
“I was beaten badly with an iron rod by CUD people,” said one witness who added it was because he was from Tigray and was speaking Tigrigna. He then pointed out from the defendants some of the people whom he alleged did the beating.

Melaku Bincha, Kassa Tadesse, Eyob Bekele and Fekadu Assefa were some of the defendants the witness pointed out.
Given the chance to cross-examine, Fekadu asked the defendant if he exactly remember him beating. “No,” answered the witness. “You didn’t do anything to me. I was beaten hard and I wasn’t in a position to know who beat me.”
Asked by the judge how he was then able to identify the defendants, the witness replied frankly “I was told by the prosecutor.”
The other witnesses were captives from Ethiopian Peoples Patriotic Front (EPPF), based in Eritrea, to explain the relationship between this Eritrean supported party and CUD.

“Our party leaders used to tell us they had secret relationship with CUD leaders,” said one witness.
Another witness who used to be with the defense force and had surrendered to Eritrean government said he used to be with EPPF until he was held captive by Ethiopian army in April 2005.
“While I was with EPPF army, three CUD leaders came to where we were and expressed their gratitude for what we were doing,” he said.
Andargachew Tsege and Berhane Mewa were among the visitors according to the witness. “They also told us EPRDF was on the verge of its death and will be over thrown,” he added.

The prosecutor also had witnesses who testified the documents that showed the connection of the two civic association defendants, Nesanet Demesse and Daniel Bekele, with other defendants. These documents were obtained when the houses of Freser Negash and Berhane Haile were searched.
Subsequently, judges will be looking into all the evidences the prosecutor presented so far that include video and audio cassettes, documents such as flyers, articles on websites, press releases and letters exchanged between party members and people’s testimonies for two months and twenty days.
The court is adjourned for February 19, 2007, for passing the verdict.