An Ethiopian Woyanne Kangaroo court has convicted two anti-poverty activists of inciting violence after the elections in 2005.
Daniel Bekele, who works for ActionAid International, and local charity worker Netsanet Demissie could face up to 10 years in prison.
The men were acquitted of more serious charges of violating the constitution.
They were the last of more than 130 defendants charged in relation to the protests complaining of fraud in polls won by the prime minister’s party.
ActionAid spokesman Tony Durham said the group were dismayed by the verdict.
The men will be sentenced on Wednesday.
Pardons
“Despite the lack of evidence proving their involvement in leadership and participation during the unrest, no evidence could be found to refute accusations of incitement,” judge Mohammed Aminsani told the court, AFP news agency reports.
“As a result, the court has found them guilty on this respect.”
Hundreds of thousands of people took part in demonstrations at alleged vote-rigging and some 193 people were killed.
Most of the dead were protesters, killed by security forces.
In August, the authorities pardoned more than 30 opposition members detained after the protest march two years ago.
Their release came a month after 38 senior opposition members were freed after signing a letter of pardon acknowledging a role in the disorder after the polls.
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FORUM | 8 Comments
“…no evidence could be found to refute accusations of incitement” This is how the “honorable” judge reasoned out to get these activists convicted. Under our criminal law presumption of innocence is one of the fundamental legal principles. Accordingly, the prosecution has a burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the accused committed the alleged crime.
Here, however, we have a scenario where the “honorable” judge required the accused to prove their innocence in the absence of any prima faci evidence from the prosecution to show their guilt. No surprise. It is a shame trial by the loyal Civil College “lawyers”.
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December 24th, 2007 at 12:45 PM
Do we expect any better from kangaroo court? don’t believe so. Truth shall win..Truth shall win..not only Netsanet & Daniel but Ethiopian will be free not so far…down with Woyanee!!!
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December 24th, 2007 at 12:58 PM
Shame on you TPLF and HODAM ASKEROCH. You will go down in history. You will be rememberd in history for this stinnking chapter you put on record. Shame Shame Shame on you Hodam Dagna. Youre a disgrace to your family.
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December 24th, 2007 at 2:16 PM
No matter how powerful you are now, how rich you are ( robbed from Ethiopian people) you , the weyanes, will never get the respect you wish in your life, you will be despised in the history. The time will come!
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December 24th, 2007 at 3:21 PM
weyanes are trying to frustrate all other civic organizations actives in thye future that if you will not vote for me ,I will imprison you like daniel and nesant.weyane has showed for an international communities that they have un right to imprison any one who did not vote to me whether they have committed a crime or not. not voting for weyane is a crime by it self
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December 24th, 2007 at 3:47 PM
May God give Daniel and Netsanet as well as their loved ones the strength to bear this pain and injustice? Daniel and Netsanet are two courageous Ethiopians who have decided to fight for their principles.I implore all freedom loving Ethiopians to read Prof. Alemayehu G/Mariam’s brilliant article “Monkey Trial in a Kangaroo Court” about the trial which has just appeared in Ethiopian Review and other Ethiopian websites. With the way the Woyane regime is skidding downhill these days, we pray your incarceration to be short-lived. As for the so called judges who passed down the guilty verdict on these innocent victims, I have nothing but contempt.
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December 24th, 2007 at 4:13 PM
Daniel and Netsanet, the two improperly punished and tormented young Ethiopians, may think there is no justice in this world, for they have been jailed for a crime they have never committed. The judges themselves who sentenced them may also think there are no good judges whose verdicts are always one hundred percent right, so they may feel comfortable about their verdicts against those two innocent Ethiopians. The main goals of these judges, of course, are to make their master, Meles Zenawi, happier and prouder by following the rule of the unjust law and by giving improper punishment to the defendants rather than making him sadder and gloomier by following the rule of law. What is a proper punishment?
In the Old Testament, proper punishment is to punish a person according to the crime he/she has committed: “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” The irony here is that Daniel and Netsanet have committed none of the above crimes, so they are simply put in jail for having been found innocent. In other words, they have failed to prove they are innocent rather than the government has failed to prove they are guilty. I could not understand the merit of sending some ones to jail for they could not prove they are innocent. Hello there, criminal law experts, can you please explain to me why a person has to go to jail because he/she has been found innocent of the crime, but failed to prove he/she is innocent rather than the persecutor must prove the defendant is guilty? Heaven, have mercy on us!
For almost three years, Meles Zenawi has been working very hard to shift the accountability for the 2005 genocide to someone else; in this case, he is trying to make Daniel and Netsanet as the main causes for that slaughter he had committed. I cannot wait until I see the complete collapse of his rotten regime, and I cannot wait until I see the Ethiopian people have, like South Africa, established “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” where Ethiopia makes a peaceful transformation from Meles’ corrupt regime to a truly representative democracy, and where the blind judges and all Woyanne political advisors being punished and sent to an eleemosynary institution, and stay there for the rest of their lives if their crimes do not qualify them for death penalty, but I doubt they would escape the death penalty after they have completely ruined the country and shattered the lives of thousands of Ethiopians.
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December 24th, 2007 at 9:44 PM
Assta my friend we’ll have “Truth And Reconciliation Commission” after Meles frees over 30,000 Oromos,CUD supporets,Students,teachers,OLF supporeters,Mucha Tolama leaders,others from jail and also Meles himself and all top TPLF leaders,and Aagz army be brought to the people’s court for all the their crimes.We’ll talk after TPLF leaders found guilt and ordered by the court to be headed in Meskel infront of millions people….untill that you and your buddies can keep on lying.you can fool some people sometimes but you can not fool all the people all the time.
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December 25th, 2007 at 6:01 AM