Bekele Gerba
ESAT News (August 18, 2017)
A court in Addis Ababa ruled today that Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, the speaker of the House Abadula Gemeda and the president of the oromo region, Lemma Megerssa appear before the court as defense witnesses in a case involving Oromo political opposition leaders.
Bekele Gerba and et al who are charged with criminal and terrorism offenses by the kangaroo courts of the regime had earlier requested that the officials should testify before the court.
Mr. Gerba and 22 others are in prison accused of having links to opposition political parties abroad outlawed by the regime and also accused of inciting the anti-government protest in the Oromo region in 2015 and 2016. The defendants have been in jail for the last 15 months.
Terrorism charges against 5 of the 22 defendants, including Mr. Gerba were reduced to criminal offences. But defense lawyers’ request for bail was denied by the court last week.
Gerba responded to the court saying he expected no justice from the court and that he was not surprised at all. Gerba said that was not the first time an Ethiopian court made such a decision.
Bekele Gerba a linguist who taught at the Addis Ababa University for nearly three decades is also a vocal opposition figure in Ethiopia. Gerba had previously served 4 years on trumped up charges of terrorism. He was arrested again in December 2016.