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By Staff Reporter
August 28, 2020 (Ezega.com) – The Ethiopian Supreme Court issued a guilty verdict on Friday on five accused of attempted murder against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during a demonstration in support of the Prime Minister’s radical reforms .
A bomb that was thrown on stage as Abiy waved to crowds of tens of thousands in Addis Ababa’s Meskel Square on June 23, 2018, killed two people and injured more than 163 more.
Accordingly, the court issued a guilty verdict on the defendants, namely Getu Girma, Berhanu Jafar, Tilahun Getachew, Bahiru Tolla and Desalegn Tesfaye for attempting to kill the prime minister in the grenade attack.
The prosecutor charged the defendants with the exception of the fifth defendant, Desalegn Tesfaye, on the basis of articles 32, 36 and 38 of the Ethiopian criminal law and article 3 of the proclamation of the Ethiopian anti-terrorism law number 652.
The charges say the five defendants joined efforts to kill Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed claiming Abiy is not popular with the Oromos, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, and wanted to pave the way for the Oromo Liberation Front. (OLF), once banned.
The charges say the defendants planned the assassination attempt in Sululta, outside Addis Ababa, after receiving instructions from Genet Tamiru, the alleged mastermind behind the attack. Genet lives in Kenya, but it is unclear if the Ethiopian government is working on his extradition to Ethiopia.
According to the charges, the first defendant named Getu Girma received an order from Genet to kill the prime minister. Tamiru then formed the group of assassins to kill the Prime Minister at the rally. Genet Tamiru, who is apparently a member of the OLF.
Police charges said Getu met with the second defendant, Berhanu Jafar, in Sululta and had an in-depth discussion on how they would carry out the attack. All the defendants met in different places, including in Asko and piazza, and discussed the murder.
According to the charges, the third, fourth and fifth defendants had worn T-shirts with the image of Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed before arriving at Meskel Square in a car. In accordance with their mission, they mingled with the rally, and the third defendant, Tilahun Getachew, threw a bomb onto the stage after the prime minister finished his speech.
Two people were killed and 163 others injured in the bomb attack, the charges read.
The fourth defendant, Bahiru Tolla, dropped the single F-bomb on a small soccer field in front of the Nani building, but the bomb did not explode, according to the charges. The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has yet to comment on the issue at the time of writing.
The prime minister described the attack at the time as a “failed attempt by forces that do not want to see Ethiopia united.”
The court has attached the case for another date for the final verdict.
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