Ethiopia releases Agew politician from prison

Ethiopia has released an Agew politician who has been in prison for around three months.

Almarew Yirdaw is the chairman of Agew National Congress. Agew National Congress represents Agew ethnic group. Agaws or Agews mostly live in Amhara region of Ethiopia.

Mr. Almarew was detained on October 5 last year. He was charged with ‘organizing young people in Addis Ababa/Finfine for unrest’ and allegedly having contacts with armed rebels against the government.

The charges were filed at Arada Court, First Division, Addis Ababa on the 4th and 13th of October. But, the court found him not guilty and released him on bail on October 29. However, after he left the court premises following the release, federal security forces again arrested him and took him to Aba Samuel high-security prison, near the town of Galan, southeast of Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia has reportedly released Mr. Alamerew Yirdaw, the Agew politician.

He is one of the several politicians released this month by the Ethiopian government. At the start of this month, the government released Oromo politicians Jawar Mohamed, Bekele Gerba, Hamza Borena, Dejene Tafa who have been in prison for more than a year.

Some members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front including its founding member Sebha Nega were also released by the government this month.

Ethiopian government says that the politicians are being released because the government is about to launch a National Dialogue, and it wants the dialogue to be inclusive.

But several top politicians are still in prison. Almost all leaders of Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) are in prison.OLF is mainly based in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Its leader Daud Ibsa was put under house arrest several months ago. Despite calls from other political parties, so far no OLF leader has been released from prison.

It is not clear so far which released politicians will participate in the upcoming National Dialogue.