- The trial of Ethiopian opposition leaders and journalists accused of trying to overthrow the government after disputed elections in May 2005 resumed on Tuesday, with the prosecution making its submissions about how the accused planned to carry out their alleged plot against the state.
The 111 defendants - which include at least 54 officials of the country's main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), and 15 journalists - face charges of attempting to "overthrow the constitutional order through violence" and "outrages against the constitution". Other charges include high treason and attempted genocide, which are capital offences under Ethiopian law. Twenty-five individuals are being tried in absentia.
Despite renewed calls by human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday for the release of the accused, the main prosecutor, Shimeles Kemal, said the defendants were guilty of instigating unrest after parliamentary and municipal elections on 15 May 2005. At least 84 people died, many at the hands of the police, when violence erupted in Ethiopia in June and November 2005 during opposition demonstrations to protest alleged poll fraud.
"All defendants had the same criminal objective: to overthrow and dismantle the duly established government through violence. This is their common objective. All the defendants participated in instigating riots,” Shimeles told the court. "Some of the defendants attempted to inflict damage and harm people who don't belong to their party. They burned houses and attacked [ethnic] Tigreans."
The prosecutor told IRIN the CUD members were hand-in-glove with a clandestine group known as the Ethiopian Patriotic Front which had "openly declared an armed struggle to overthrow the government."
Three defendants have refused to enter pleas. Seven of the detainees said prison authorities had beaten them and put them in solitary confinement for no apparent reason. "When my family visited me, I requested to use my own language, but the police didn't let me do that. [...] Later, they put me in a dark room, alone, separated from the others. They took my picture without my consent," said Muluneh Eyouel, a CUD official.
Federal High Court Judge Adil Ahmed asked prison authorities to investigate the complaints of abuse and adjourned the case until 8 May, when the prosecution is expected to start producing its evidence.
Amnesty International called the accused "prisoners of conscience" who had not called for violence. "This very worrying trial has major implications for human rights, media freedom and democratisation in Ethiopia," the organisation said in its statement.
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