Ethiopia charges prominent opposition figure with terrorism

Ethiopia has charged its most prominent opposition
figure, Jawar Mohammed, and 23 other people with terrorism-related offenses,
telecom fraud and other criminal activities, the attorney general’s office
announced Saturday.
The office said they will appear in court on Monday.
The charges relate to deadly violence that erupted in July in parts of the
capital, Addis Ababa, and the Oromia region after the killing of singer Hachalu
Hundessa, a prominent voice in anti-government protests that led to Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed coming to power in 2018. Authorities said over 180 people
were killed in the July unrest.
Jawar, a media mogul-turned-politician, has huge
support among youth in the Oromia region and returned to Ethiopia after Abiy
came to power and urged exiles to come home amid sweeping political reforms
that led to him receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Oromo make up Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group
but had never held the country’s top post until they helped bring Abiy to
power. Now ethnic tensions and intercommunal violence are posing a growing
challenge to his reforms.
Jawar has become fiercely critical of the Ethiopian
leader, most recently over the postponement of the general election once
planned for August because of the coronavirus pandemic. The government’s
mandate expires late next month, and a new election date has not been set.
Jawar has been detained since he and several
thousand people were arrested during the July violence. His lawyers have
repeatedly asserted he was locked up because of his political views and have
called for his release.
Human rights groups have warned that such arrests
show that Abiy’s political reforms are slipping.
Youth in Oromia have staged a number of recent
protests calling for the release of political prisoners, including one in late
August that left “scores” of people dead, according to the Ethiopian Human
Rights Commission and witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press.
Abiy in a opinion piece published this week in The
Economist wrote that “individuals and groups, disaffected by the
transformations taking place, are using everything at their disposal to derail
them. They are harvesting the seeds of inter-ethnic and inter-religious
division and hatred.” He rejected “dangerous demagogues.”
The prime minister also acknowledged alleged abuses
by security forces during the bouts of unrest, saying that “given the
institutions we have inherited, we realize that law-enforcement activities
entail a risk of human-rights violations and abuse.” Security reforms take
time, he said.