Ethiopia’s Kangaroo Court Sentences Oromo Political Prisoners to Death and Long Years in Prison

According to OLF News report received from Finfinne (Addis Ababa), the 3rd Bench of the Woyane/Ethiopian Kangaroo Federal Court gave a death sentence to an Oromo nationalist and political prisoner, Mesfin Abebe Abdisa, and a life prison sentence to another Oromo nationalist and political prisoner, Tasfahun Camadaa Gurmessaa, on March 31, 2010. The court also gave a long term imprisonment of 10 years to 12 years to 13 other Oromo nationalists listed below.

1. Masfiin Abbabaa Abdiisaa, Death Sentence, Civil engineer.

1. Tasfaahuun Camadaa Gurmeessaa, Life Sentence, Civil engineer,


2. Baqqalaa Nagarii, 12 years without parole, Businessman in Addis Ababa,


3. Isheetuu Kitil, 12 years without parole, Businessman and owner of the Hawi Hotel (Finfinne),


4. Kabbadaa Booranaa, 12 years without parole, Senior Manager of Hilton Hotel, Addis Ababa,


5. Waabee Hajii, 12 years without parole, Lawyer with the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia,


6. Baqqalaa Jiraataa, 12 years without parole (in Absentia), General Secretary of OFDM and an employee of Oromia Water Resources,


7. Dajanee Dhaabaa, 12 years without parole, Trader,


8. Dajanee Booranaa, 12 years without parole (in Absentia), Brother of Mr. Kebede Borena,


9. Abarraash Yaadataa, 12 years without parole,


10. Roobaa Gaddafaa, 10 years without parole, Statistician and employee of Hibret Insurance


11. Baayisaa Huseen, 10 years without parole, High School student, Ambo,


12. Lalisee Wadaajoo, 10 years without parole, Journalist and wife of exiled television journalist, Dhabasa Wakjira, himself a former detainee,


13. Olaanii Jabeesaa, 10 years without parole,


14. Haayiluu Dalasaa, 10 years without parole, 3rd year Law student at Haromaya University.
    
    Among the convicted, two of them, Tesfahun Chemeda and Mesfin Abebe, were apprehended by the Kenyan government and handed over to Woyane in April 2007, and have been severely tortured by the regime and finally brought to court in 2008. Many others have been falsely accused and abducted from their homes and their work places.
    

According to the latest Oromo Support Group Report:
Tesfahun Chemeda and Mesfin Abebe, both civil engineers, were in Nairobi seeking protection with UNHCR when they disappeared from Kenya in 2007. Human rights defenders in Nairobi believed that they had been abducted by Ethiopian security men and/or by Kenyan police in cooperation with the Ethiopian embassy. Their location was not known to their families for two years.

Mr. Bekele Jirata was the General Secretary of OFDM and was arrested by the regime on November 04, 2008. He had then been accused of having relations with OLF and stayed in prison before he was released on bail on February 04, 2009.

Mrs. Lelise Wodajo, a former journalist in the government-run Ethiopian TV and a mother of three, was arrested on November 14, 2008 and stayed in jail since then. Her husband, Mr. Dhabessa Wakjira, had also been jailed for more than three years and went to exile, after being released.