Ethiopia targets opposition who met with European lawmakers

Ethiopia targets opposition who met with European lawmakers

Ethiopia says it will not release a leading opposition figure detained under the country’s state of emergency after meeting with European lawmakers in Belgium.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn told reporters on Monday that Merara Gudina of the Oromo Federalist Congress party instead will face justice.

The prime minister says “individuals in the European Parliament who are harboring anti-peace elements cannot save those who trespass the law of the country.”

Merara is one of 22,000 people the prime minister says were detained under the state of emergency declared in October after widespread anti-government protests.

Merara was arrested immediately after he returned from Belgium. He was accused of meeting with members of an armed Ethiopian opposition group in Brussels, an act banned under the emergency law.

One Response to Ethiopia targets opposition who met with European lawmakers

  1. Addis Zemen January 9, 2017 at 5:57 pm #

    10,000 people that were areested in Oromia got released. When the people were arrested it was under the assumption “Violence broke out during an Oromo religious festival, and in some instances foreigners seem to have been targeted. ”

    But now many prosecutors agree Violence was not the case. The people at the Erecha celebration thought aliens invaded their country. They thought the foreigners were aliens from another planet.
    Close to a thousand threw themselves of a cliff just because they saw a helicopter flying near them. Many are paralized hundreds died. Now the injured are trying to blame the helicopter pilot for their injuries by saying the pilot caused their injuries by scaring them, flying like an alien abductor UFO would . After the prosecutor agreed it was an accident or suicide that caused the deaths of hundreds of people at the Erecha celebration, the suspected 10,000 prisoners got released. The prosecutors are blaming those that spoke with the European parliament for spreading false information about what really happened at the Erecha celebration.

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