By Qeerransoo Biyyaa*
Ethiopia’s ruling party-controlled court sentenced 16 Oromo nationals to death, life and long term imprisonment in Finfinne/Addis Ababa on March 31, 2010.
The judges accused the Oromos of financing and being the members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and of conspiracy to violently overthrow the minority Tigire-controlled government in order to establish an independent state of Oromiya.
Engineer Mesfin A. Abdissa, Sentenced to Death by Zenawi's Court |
Thirteen of them were sentenced to 10-13 years in prison. One of them, Mesfin Abebe Abdissa (Engineer), was sentenced to death while the court meted out life imprisonments to two others – Mesfin Ittana and Tesfahun Chamada (Engineer).
The Oromian Human Rights and Justice Council (OHRJC) sates that the recipient of the death sentence, Mr. Mesfin Abdissa, and the recipient of a life imprisonment, Mr. Tesfahun Chamada, were extradited refugees who once lived in Kenya as legal refugees and carried the UNHCR IDs.
Two Oromo women and mothers were sentenced to 10 years in prison each. Mrs. Lalisse Wadajo is a mother of three kids and was a journalist in the government-owned Ethiopia Television before she was jailed and sentenced; her husband Dhabassa Wakjira, who was also a journalist, was exiled after over two years in jail.
Another Oromo woman, Mrs. Abarash Yadata, is a mother of four children.
In a statement from Washington, D.C., the OLF said that these Oromo nationals are not its members, but they are innocent persons sentenced for being Oromo.
“The charges filed against them were trumped-up charges. They did not get a fair trial. The kangaroo court that passed the unjust sentences … was neither independent nor partial; it is the tyrannical minority regimes instrument of repression,” the OLF statement explained.
The OLF is a political organization established in 1973, and the OLF says its mission is “to lead the national liberation struggle of the Oromo people against Abyssinian colonialism.”
The profiles of the convicted Oromo prisoners included engineers, businesspersons, mothers, lawyers, students and farmers. Some comment these Oromos represented the creams of the Oromo society in all walks of life.
The Oromo are the largest ethno-national group, comprising nearly 50 percent of the country’s population. Oromiya, the state inhabited by Oromo people, is the largest official regional state in the country, and the breadbasket and source of rich natural resources.
For a complete list and description of the guilty verdict on Oromo prisoners, refer tohttp://www.oromiahumanrights.org
* Qeerransoo Biyyaa can be reached at meettaa@gmail.com and blogs atOromoPress.blogspot.com
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