Court drops charges of treason and attempt to genocide

By Simegnish Yekoye

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Ethiopian court dropped two serious charges of attempted genocide and treason against Ethiopian opposition party leaders, journalists and civil association defendants on Monday. The court has also freed 25 defendants among whom eight are journalists and newspaper publishers.
According to the two judges, Adil Mohammod and Mohammod Ahmed Samin, after looking at the case the prosecutor built against the defendants, they have not found any sufficient grounds for treason or genocide committed by the defendants.

However, the third judge, Leuel G/Mariam, was against the decision and it was with a majority vote that the charges were dropped.
Though the released prisoners could not be immediately available for interviews, SSI has learnt that they were freed on Tuesday following the court order.
Council members of Coalition for Unity and Democracy, CUD party and other defendants on the other hand, were ordered to defend themselves against the charges of conspiracy, instigating a nationwide strike and violence, attempting to raise armed uprising to overthrow government and impairing the defensive power of the state when a threat of war with Eritrea was eminent.
Out of 131 defendants originally charged by the prosecutor, 46 have been released so far.

Though the defendants asked the judge to be allowed to discuss together on wether they needed to defend themselves or not, the judge did not respond and simply adjourned the court for April 30, 2007.