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By Mahlet Fasil @MahletFasil
Addis Ababa, September 01, 2020 – Federal prosecutors have formally charged Dejene Tafa, vice president of the opposition party Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) and another co-defendant for crimes against constitutional order, attack against public security and incitement to violence, among others.
Since the government’s massive crackdown on various leaders and members of opposition parties almost two months ago following the murder of Oromo artist Hachalu Hundesa, Dejene has become the first high-ranking opposition figure to be formally charged with criminal charges. . If convicted, the three articles Dejene is charged with carry life in prison up to the death penalty.
Dejene Fikadu, one of three attorneys representing Dejene and Mesteward Temam, the second co-defendant in Dejene’s file, said Addis Standard that both were charged by articles 32, 35 and 238/2 of the Penal Code.
Of the three articles of the Penal Code, article 238/2 under “Violations against the Constitution or the Constitutional Order” says: “When the crime has entailed serious crisis against public safety or life, the penalty will be life imprisonment or death”.
Prosecutors accused Dejene and Mesteward of “pushing for the establishment of a transitional government using coercive measures, including dismantling the constitution once the legislative term limit came to an end in June this year.” They were also accused of using Hachalu’s murder as a cover “to advocate for the Oromo people to rise up and secure their ownership of the country; dismantle statues of Menelik II and others in the country; and advocating for the Qeerroo (a popular Afaan Oromo term for single men) to destroy property belonging to natives of other nations and get rid of the political order in the 4-kilo palace ”.
In addition, the charge separately accuses Dejene of “receiving orders over the phone” from Bekele Gerba, vice president of the OFC, who is also in custody at a pre-trial hearing, to organize the young Oromo to prevent Hachalu’s body from traveling. to his hometown of Ambo and forcibly returned to Addis Ababa after he reached the city of Burayu in the Oromia special zone surrounding Finffine. Prosecutors also accused Dejene of coordinating violence by calling his allies in the Bale Dembel Wereda area the night Hachalu was killed. His actions have resulted in the deaths of two people in the Bale area and six people in Addis Ababa, prosecutors alleged.
On August 24, the judges of the Federal Court of First Instance of Arada granted Dejene a bail of 10,000 birr, however, the police appealed the decision in the Federal High Court and was given until August 26 to present his cases against Dejene and three others with him. However, the police did not file the charges on August 26 and the judges gave them an ultimatum of five more days to file the charges and warned the police that if they do not do so within the established timeframe, the judges will uphold the court’s decision. Federal Court of First Instance Rama Arada to release Dejene on bail. The hearing was postponed until Monday, August 31.
At the August 31 hearing, the police again did not file the charges, but said their investigations were complete and the files were transferred to the Attorney General’s Office for charges to be filed on September 1. Subsequently, the judges stopped Dejene’s release. which led to today’s criminal indictment by federal prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office.
The judges overturned the defense team’s request to release Dejene and Masteward on bail during today’s hearing, and postponed the next hearing until September 3 to obtain an answer against the defense team’s charges.
Dejene was one of the four defendants from the OFC leadership, the other three being Gurmesa Ayano, Addisu Bulala and Bekele Gerba, who was sentenced to prison on terrorism charges and was launched in February 2016, two months before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office. HOW
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