borkena
March 3, 2020
In a press release on March 3, 2020, Amnestry International calls for police accountability over what it called is “missing Oromo opposition leader”
Full content of the press release is as follows
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
03 March 2020
Ethiopia: Police must account for missing Oromo opposition leader
Spokespersons available to take media interviews
The police must account for the whereabouts of Abdi Regassa – a senior member of the opposition political party Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – who remains missing after security officers in Addis Ababa broke into his home and arrested him alongside eight other party members on 29 February.
The other eight party members were released later the same day, but Abdi Regassa was not. He may have been subjected to enforced disappearance and is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. The police have denied they are still holding him according to his lawyer and family members.
“Abdi Regassa’s family and lawyers have spent the last couple of days frantically searching police stations and detention centres across Addis Ababa in an attempt to locate him,” said Seif Magango, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.
“The police deny that they have him in their custody and yet he was last seen in their custody and there is no evidence that he has been released. This is understandably causing his family considerable anxiety and distress. The authorities must come clean and immediately disclose his whereabouts and allow him access to his family and lawyer.”
In the early hours of 29 February, security officers stormed a guest house in the southern part of Addis Ababa where five senior members of the OLF and four supporters were staying. All nine were arrested and taken to the local police station.
The OLF members were then split into two groups; the first group of six were moved to the Addis Ababa Police Commission and eventually released within 24 hours of arrest.
The second group of three, comprising Abdi Regassa and Mikael Gobena, both members of OLF’s Executive Committee, and Kenessa Ayana, a member of OLF’s Central Committee, were taken to an unmarked unofficial detention compound around the 6 Kilo area in Addis Ababa. While Mikael Gobena and Kenessa Ayana were released within 24 hours of arrest, the police continued to detain Abdi Regassa, the two told Amnesty International.
The police confiscated the mobile phones, driving licenses, passports and bank ATM cards of all the OLF members before releasing them, leaving them stranded.
“The Ethiopian authorities must stop arbitrarily arresting and detaining opposition figures. They must immediately disclose Abdi Regassa’s whereabouts, charge him with a recognisable crime under the law or release him without further delay,” said Seif Magango.
Public Document
****************************************
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Catherine Mgendi on:
+254 737 197 614
email: catherine.mgendi@amnesty.org
Out of hours contact details
+44 20 7413 5566
email: press@amnesty.org
twitter: @amnestypress
_____
Join the conversation. Like borkena on Facebook and get Ethiopian News updates regularly. As well, you may get Ethiopia News by following us on twitter @zborkena
Debretsion Gebremicbael had visited this GERD dam project more than any other human being , he went there back and forth from Addis Ababa hundreds of times if not thousands of times sometimes making two or three round-trips in the same week.
Debretsion Gebremichael is the one that brought all these issue of economic sabotage by using his connections in USA, his sabotage includes to use his puppet Abiy start filling the water while the dam is still prematured, so the dam collapses without further detail safety/quality investigation on the dam is carried out, as long as the dam collapses one way or the other without the need for retrofitting of the dam becomes visible, then Debretsion succeeded .
Abiy prosperity party got more office branches and employees in Tigray region compared to Dire Dawa , Harrari , Oromia , Amhara and Somali regions added together. This shows headquarters of the Abiy/Prosperity Party had been TPLF Tigray all along .
Abiy is a puppet of TPLF.
Oromo Community Organization of Washington, DC, is organizing a peaceful demonstration ON MARCH 13TH 2020 WHITEHOUSE , WORLDBANK AND THE WHITE HOUSE .
BE THERE OR BE THEIRS !!
oromocommunitydmv.org/services
It sounds like one is telling on the other. This is a classic round up and cognitive release. I am telling you one must have said something on the other. This organization as most fronts south of Eritrea was created for a right cause but unfortunately it has taken over by the wrong people with skeletons in their closets. They were doing in-fighting more than fighting their designated ‘colonial’ army. That was why they could not find a reliable place to operate in the largest region and people there. They were camping out in Somalia and then went on to scavenge at the dump sites in Piccola Roma. This roundup is the result of the infighting among hommies.