On the afternoon of March 2, police arrested Beyene from his office in the capital city of Addis Ababa, according to news reports and two people familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ.
Police did not give any reason for his arrest at the time, and in two
subsequent court appearances authorities accused Beyene, founder and
editor of the Gurage Media Network news website, of terrorism and
incitement, according to his lawyer, Andamlak Shinber, who spoke to CPJ
by phone. He has not been formally charged with a crime, and police have
been granted permission to keep him in custody until March 28.
“Ethiopian authorities have an entrenched habit of incarcerating
journalists on vague allegations, which has steadily eroded the space
for critical reporting and commentary in the country,” said CPJ Africa
Program Coordinator Angela Quintal, in New York. “Beyene Wolde and all
other journalists detained for their work should be released immediately
and unconditionally.”
When Beyene appeared at the Lideta High Court in Addis Ababa on March
3, authorities accused him and six others of attempting to use violence
to overthrow the country’s constitutional order, engaging in activities
related to terrorism, organizing the youth, and using social media
platforms to “cause mayhem and death,” according to Andamlak.
Andamlak said police were granted 10 days to hold him in custody pending investigation.
When Beyene’s relatives visited him at the Federal Police Crime
Investigation Main Department in Addis Ababa on March 6, police said the
journalist had been transferred to an unspecified location, the
journalist’s brother, Nigatu Wolde, told CPJ by phone.
In a letter dated March 10 addressed to the Lideta High Court, which
CPJ reviewed, police said that Beyene and his co-defendants had been
released from custody and the allegations against them had been dropped.
However, on March 14, Beyene was brought before the High Court in
Gurage Zone, an area in Ethiopia’s Southern Nations, Nationalities, and
Peoples’ region, where he was accused of the same offenses and police
were granted an additional 14 days to hold him in custody, Andamlak told
CPJ. As of March 22, he is being held at Butajira police station in
Gurage Zone, according to Andamlak and Nigatu.
In mid-February, protesters in the Gurage Zone capital of Wolkite
took to the streets to protest the lack of clean water, according to multiple media reports, which said security forces killed and injured several protesters.
Nigatu posted on
Facebook that Beyene traveled to Wolkite weeks before his arrest to
report on the protests. Commentary and reporting by Beyene published on
GMN’s website and YouTube channel, which has over 5,000 subscribers,
include a report advocating for the right to protest in the Gurage Zone, coverage of the killing of protesters, and interviews with the families of the victims of violence.
When CPJ contacted federal police spokesperson Jeylan Abdi for
comment, he said he would “verify the case” but then failed to respond
to follow-up messages. CPJ emailed the Gurage Zone government’s
communications office but did not receive any response.
