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The Federal Attorney General said he has indicted 2,000 people who allegedly participated in various ways in protests and violence following the murder of prominent Oromo musician Hachalu Hundessa.
This was revealed at a press conference offered by Attorney General Gedeon Timoteos (PhD) together with Head of Foreign Languages and Digital Media of the Press Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, Billene Seyoum, on Thursday, September 24, 2020. .
It should be recalled that more than 9,000 people had been arrested just after the protests in Addis Ababa and Oromia, following the murder of Hachalu. Among those detained are prominent politicians such as Lidetu Ayalew of the Ethiopian Democratic Party, Eskinder Nega de las Balderas, as well as Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba of the Oromo National Congress (ONC).
In briefing the media on the rule of law for the past three months and beyond, Gedeon claimed that minorities were observed and targeted in some parts of the country. 160 people have died and 360 people have been injured as a result. In addition, properties worth 4.6 billion birr were damaged as a result of the violence instigated in Addis Ababa and Oromia.
According to Gedeon, the defendants participated in Hachalu’s murder and incited violence to varying degrees.
“The scale and the way the crimes were committed was a challenge in itself. So the enormity of the crime was the main challenge we faced, ”said Gedeon.
For his part, Billene argued that such outbreaks of violence in the country are not indicative of the government’s limited capacity to protect citizens from attacks. She added that the government had thwarted unreported attacks, terrorist activities and should not be prosecuted for reported attacks that attracted media attention.
Gedeon also said that in addition to preventing other attacks, the fact that the perpetrators have been brought to justice will deter future attempts at violence.
Prominent politicians like Jawar Mohammed had claimed in court that they were detained for their political views and the government wanted to remove them from political space as the elections approached. But the Attorney General downplayed such claims, arguing that no link should be made between the political roles of individuals and their positions.
“We have to distinguish between correlation and causality. Some of the people arrested were politicians but they are not detained for their political activity, ”he said.
Although he indicated that some court cases have been delayed, he said he hopes the recent appointment of judges will ease the burden on the judiciary to speed up trials and sentences.
