By REUTERS
Filed at 10:55 a.m. ET
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia freed 38 opposition members and activists on Friday, four days after they were given jail terms for trying to overthrow the government in a case they say was politically motivated.
They were driven out of prison in minibuses to the cheers of dozens of relatives and supporters waiting outside. One man unfurled an Ethiopian flag and waved it as motorists honked their horns in celebration.
“It was not a trial. It was a show. In Ethiopia we call it theatre,” said Hailu Shawel, chairman of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), at his home.
The defendants were arrested after disputed elections in 2005 sparked two bouts of unrest in which 199 people were killed, 800 wounded and 30,000 arrested, according to a parliamentary inquiry.
On Monday, an Ethiopian court rejected a prosecution call to condemn the CUD leaders to death for treason, inciting violence and trying to topple the government — instead delivering life sentences to 35 of them.
Eight other defendants received prison terms ranging from 18 months to 18 years in a trial rights groups and donors complained was an attempt to dismantle the CUD after it made strong gains in May 2005 elections.
Announcing the pardon was Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who has accused the opposition of conspiring to topple him by force.
“The decision to pardon the CUD members also conveys that there is no sense of revenge by the government,” Meles told a news conference, adding that the 38 had their constitutional right to vote and stand for election restored.
Among those freed were Addis Ababa mayor-elect Berhanu Nega and Mesfin Woldemariam, a prominent human rights campaigner.
“SLAVES”
Slugging whisky and sipping tea, hordes of friends queued to greet Shawel in his sprawling Addis Ababa mansion. After almost two years in detention, Shawel, 70, was bitter when asked if the rift between the opposition and government could be healed.
“We are slaves. I can’t see how we can reconcile if the guy in power can’t reconcile,” he told reporters, saying he would not take up his parliamentary seat.
The opposition maintains that government vote-rigging denied them victory in what was billed as the fledgling democracy’s freest election yet. The government denies the allegations.
The sentences followed a nearly two-year trial and were immediately criticized by human rights groups. The United States, a close ally of Meles, urged clemency.
The releases came after the government made public a letter it said CUD leaders sent to Meles admitting their guilt and pledging to respect the law.
“If it was signed under duress, is it worth the paper it’s written on?” Shawel said, adding that by signing the letter he hoped imprisoned CUD supporters would be freed.
Meles denied that Washington, which considers Ethiopia its strongest counter-terrorism ally in the Horn of Africa, had any influence on the clemency ruling.
“The Ethiopian government isn’t willing and is unable to be run like a banana republic from Capitol Hill. Some individuals appear to be entertaining such illusions,” Meles said.
Analysts and diplomats say while Ethiopia is moving towards democracy, the government is keen to control the process.
The government has said the clemency appeal of the remaining prisoners out of a total of 72 convicted would follow, as well as for those in exile who were tried in absentia.
(Additional reporting by Barry Malone)