Ethiopia: Journalist and opposition party leader detained without charge for five months

(Left to right) Elias Gebru, Anania Sori and Daniel Shibeshi

ESAT News (April 12, 2017)

Journalist Elias Gebru and Daniel Shibeshi, former leading member of the opposition Andinet party, are detained for five months without charge and with no prosecutor to take their case, leaving them in limbo at the Bole Police Department for five months.

In a letter sent 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. They were told  by the prosecutor office at the Police Station that it has no power to act on their case nor to release them free.

Elias said in the letter that they were taken to the Central Investigation Bureau, the Addis Ababa Police Commission and the Prosecutor’s Bureau at the Lideta Federal High Court. They all said they wouldn’t take their case, according to Elias.

The two were arrested five months ago together with another journalist Anania Sori, who was released last month with no explanation.

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