Ethiopia: Journalist gets a year and half in jail over Facebook comments

ESAT News (May 26, 2017)

A newspaper editor in Ethiopia got a year and half in jail over Facebook comments he made five years ago. Journalist Getachew Shiferaw is the second person in a week to be sentenced by an Ethiopian court that is highly criticized for being an instrument of suppression for a regime known for its dismal human rights records.

Getachew Shiferaw, the former editor of Negere Ethiopia, has already served a year and half in jail since his arrest and solitary confinement in December 2015. He is expected to be free as per the court’s ruling.

Facebook comments he made five years ago refers to journalist and activist Abebe Gellaw’s protests against the late dictator and prime minister Meles Zenawi at a global forum in Washington, DC. He was initially charged with “terrorism” but was later downgraded to criminal offence of “inciting violence” following international uproar against the brazen act by the regime.

The protest by Abebe Gellaw against the leader of the tyrannical regime which has gone viral then is still a hot topic in the Ethiopian social media and political circles. Getachew Shiferaw, as thousands of his compatriots did, commented on his Facebook saying oppressors need to face their critics in international forums, a strategy of peaceful struggle he dubbed “Abebeism.”

Regime prosecutors said Shiferaw’s comment had violated the country’s anti-terror proclamation and judges backed prosecutors saying Getachew publicly endorsed Abebe Gellaw, who is also convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 15 years in absentia for his sharp criticism of the regime. “Shiferaw may heckle and disrupt officials, should he get a chance” the judges said. Sheferaw is also accused of having links to opposition groups and journalists abroad.

“This is the worst travesty of justice I have ever heard. If exercising my free speech rights is a crime, they should free Getachew and charge me instead of Getachew Shiferaw,” said Abebe Gellaw, who is now the Executive Director of the Ethiopian Satellite Television and Radio (ESAT), a foreign based independent media. He denied that there has never been any contact between him and the accused.

“But freedom of expression is guaranteed under the constitution, even if it is not worth the paper it is written on. This and similar cases clearly show that courts are tools of repression in Ethiopia under the minority TPLF-led regime,” he added.

The same court on Thursday sentenced a young politician and activist to six years and six months in jail over Facebook comments.

Yonatan Tesfaye, the former public relations head for the opposition Blue Party and a social media activist, was arrested in December 2015 at the height of the anti-government protest. His comments on his Facebook take note of the fact that the regime has used the laws in the country to oppress the people and hence protests by the people were legitimate.

Amnesty International called the court’s decisions “a further slap in the face for justice.”