Abebe belew biography samples

Nairobi, July 13, 2012–An Ethiopian court today handed down heavy prison sentences to six journalists convicted on vague terrorism charges, local journalists and news reports said.

Award-winning blogger Eskinder Nega got an 18-year term; the others live in exile and were sentenced in absentia.

“The court has given due considerations to the charges and the sentences are appropriate,” presiding Judge Endeshaw Adane told a packed courtroom at the Lideta Federal High Court in the capital, Addis Ababa, as he issued sentences for 24 defendants, including the journalists, convicted of involvement in a vague terror plot, according to wire reports.

The judge accused veteran journalist Eskinder of participating in a terrorist organization, planning a terrorist act, and “working with the Ginbot 7 organization,” a U.S.-based opposition group that the Ethiopian government formally designated a terrorist ent