ADDIS NEGER CHIEF EDITOR ARRESTED

Reliable sources from Addis Ababa have confirmed that Mr. Mesfin Negash, chief editor Addis Neger, one of the popular newspapers in Ethiopia has been arrested today August 4, 2008 at a police station in Addis Ababa, locally known as “Sostegna Police Tabia”.

Mr. Mesfin was arrested because Addis Neger newspaper reported that the attorney of Tewodros Kassahun has said that he would sue the presiding judge of the case itself, after the judge unprofessionally and illegally declined to listen a motion that the defense presented .

The Presiding Judge is Mr Leul Gebremariam, one of the tree judges who last year, illegally sentenced to death CUD leaders, reporters and human right activists.

In Ethiopia most of the judges do not have the ability to function independently. They are either fearful of the regime or loyal to it.

Therefore this arrest of Mr Mesfin Negjas can be seen as a clear indication that the EPRDF regime does not have regard to the constitution and even its own law that it has recently passed in parliament. It is to be recalled that the recently passed press law does have some provisions that protect reporters from going to jail due to reporting they made on their newspapers.