Ethiopia: Journalist says security agents detain dissents indefinitely

ESAT News (April 13, 2017)

Ethiopian regime  security officers arrest and detain journalists and dissents indefinitely, violating the constitution, and due process deliberately breached by authorities to punish and silence critics and dissidents. , a journalists told ESAT on Thursday.

Journalist Anania Sori, who was released last month after being detained for months without charge, said he and his friends, journalist Elias Gebru and Daniel Shibeshi, a leading member of the opposition Andinet party, were picked up by security officers in plain clothes and thrown to jail, with no explanation given to them by the tormentors.

Elias Gebru and Daniel Shibeshi are in detention for the last five months without any charges and has never seen a day in court.

In a letter from his detention, journalist Elias Gebru says the prosecutor at the Bole Police Department told them that the office could not take their case or release them free.

Anania told ESAT that regime security officers have been given unlimited  power to detain innocent people indefinitely under the pretext of the state of emergency. Theses security officers, Anania said, would act as officers of the “command post” that was created to execute the martial law declared in August last year.

The three were arrested five months ago. Anania was released last month with no explanation for his unlawful detention.

The three were arrested shortly after they posted a picture, wrists crossed above their head, which is a sign of protest against the regime in Ethiopia.