Ethiopia freed 38 opposition members following international condemnation of the two-year case and the country's history of human rights abuses.
The pardons came on Friday, after the US urged Ethiopia -- a key US ally in the Horn of Africa -- to show clemency. The defendants had been held since 2005 in connection with deadly election protests.
The politicians and activists left prison in a convoy of minibuses minutes after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced they had been pardoned, sparking cheers and whistles from dozens of opposition supporters outside Kaliti Prison.
"I hope this conveys the message that people are given a second chance as long as they seek it," Meles said.
The defendants, who sent formal apologies to the government seeking pardons, were sentenced this week to prison terms, including life, for inciting violence in an attempt to overthrow Meles' administration. Prosecutors had been pushing for the death penalty.
Hailu Shawel, leader of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy, was defiant after his release, saying he signed the apology under duress.
"I don't even call it a trial," Hailu said Friday from his home, where relatives were celebrating. "It was a show."
Meles denied that his country was acting on US orders to free the opposition members. Ethiopia is a close US ally in the Horn of Africa, an area that US officials say is a haven for al-Qaeda. Ethiopia sent troops to neighboring Somalia in December, providing vital military aid to oust a radical Islamic movement accused of links to the terror group.
"Ethiopia, this government and this country, are incapable, unwilling and unable to be run like some kind of banana republic from Capitol Hill or anywhere else," Meles said.
Those pardoned Friday include Berhanu Nega, who was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005 but was unable to serve because he was sent to jail; former Harvard scholar Mesfin Woldemariam; and former UN special envoy Yacob Hailemariam.
The opposition won an unprecedented number of parliamentary seats in the 2005 vote, but not enough to topple Meles. The opposition claimed the voting was rigged, and EU observers said they were marred by irregularities.
Late last year, Ethiopia acknowledged that its security forces killed 193 civilians protesting alleged election fraud but insisted they did not use excessive force.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RSS