Ethiopia: Chief prison warden faces legal limbo in jail

Plumes of smoke rising from Gondar prison in December 2015 when it caught a mysterious fire

ESAT News (December 2, 2016)

Chief warden of the Gondar prison has been jailed for a week now and his legal recourse is in limbo, according ESAT’s sources.

Sources say operatives of the TPLF put inspector Lijalem Meseret behind bars in Gondar for refusing to chain and handcuff  Colonel Demeke Zewdu he appeared before a court.

The Colonel is a leading figure of the uprising against the regime in Gondar. He was jailed in July after he shot and killed security operatives from Tigray who came to his house to arrest him without court warrant. The Colonel leads the campaign by the people of Wolkait, Tegede and Telemt against the illegal incorporation of their land into the Tigray region.

The arrest of the Colonel triggered a massive uprising against the regime in the Amhara region where at least 300 people were shot and killed by Tigrayan security forces.

Inspector Lijalem Meseret was told by his captors that his case was being handled by the federal prosecutor, Getachew Ambaye, who is in a hospital bed in Thailand.

The inspector reportedly stopped repeated attempt by the Tigrayan operatives who insist on taking the Colonel to Tigray. Sources fear the inspector was jailed to make way for the Tigrayan operatives to take custody of the Colonel.

Tensions remain high in the Amhara region since this summer when an uprising was sparked by the detention of the Wolkait committee. Skirmishes continue between regime forces and freedom fighters. Attacks by Patriotic Ginbot 7 forces have reportedly inflicted major damage against regime targets.