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Ethiopia - Zenawi’s Political Vendetta Will Not Slow Our Quest for Freedom - Ginbot 7
23 December 2009
Ginbot 7 Press Release

On November 19, 2009 the kangaroo court of the ethnocentric regime in Ethiopia passed a “guilty verdict” against General Tefera Mamo and another 40 defendants. Five days later, on November 24, the “federal prosecutor” who also is Zenawi’s henchman in the court, asked the kangaroo court to pass the death penalty against 38 of the defendants. Yesterday, December 22nd, as instructed by Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s politically charged kangaroo court sentenced five of the defendants to death and 33 others to life imprisonment. As he repeatedly said during his trial, trying to save Ethiopia from the looming dangers of the bantustan type ethnic rule of the TPLF regime was the only “crime” of General Tefera and his co-defendants.
This mock trial and sham verdict is yet another evidence that Ethiopia under Zenawi is a place where people who fight for freedom and equality are condemned by those who snatch them. Yesterday’s death sentence is an absolute farce; and what makes it utterly senseless is that the show trial and the “Do it as I told you” sentencing are both orchestrated by a brutal dictator who mercilessly killed 193 innocent civilians, and who himself stands accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Though many Ethiopians are infuriated by yesterday’s kangaroo court decision, what concerned them the most is not “judge” Adem Ibrahim’s final decision [the sentence], or the process he followed to make those decisions. The miscarriage of justice, the courtroom drama of coached witnesses, and the politically motivated arrests and trials are daily phenomena that Ethiopians have lived with for over 18 years.
What is profoundly troublesome to most Ethiopians is the complete reversal of the justice process where patriotic and decorated war generals and civilian heroes who fought for their freedom are sentenced to death by those who murdered their sons and daughters in broad day light.
The tragic drama that took place in Ethiopia’s kangaroo court yesterday is a wake-up call to all peace loving people of the world that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. We believe nothing agitates the onlooker as when a hero is condemned by a villain, and nothing is troublesome for a human mind as when a criminal is allowed to convict innocent people.
Ginbot 7 strongly believes that freedom is not free and the blood of those who die today is a seed for the freedom that grows tomorrow. Unlike what the fake judge Ibrahim said during the sentencing procedure; the death sentence does not intimidate the Ethiopian people, and it will not make them compromise on their freedom; it will rather become a driving force that energizes people to never give-an-inch until the true spirit of freedom reigns all across Ethiopia.
Ginbot 7 strongly condemns yesterday’s senseless death sentence by an illegitimate and pariah regime that willfully murders its real and perceived political enemies, commits genocide, and uses the legal system to criminalize political dissent. We believe this is a very sad time for the Ethiopian people, and Ginbot 7 wishes to use this opportunity to call on all peace loving people of the world to come together and stand with the Ethiopian people at this dark time in their history.
Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy
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