Banned Books Week
Serkalem Fasil
ETHIOPIA
publisher
Serkalem Fasil, 26, co-publisher of Asqual, Menilik and Satenaw, is one of twenty journalists being tried for "treason" in Ethiopia, along with six newspaper publishing companies, four political parties, leaders of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), and various human rights defenders. Pregnant when arrested, she has given birth in prison.
One current treason trial - involving 76 individuals arrested in November 2005, in connection with opposition demonstrations against the government, and 25 other defendants being tried in their absence - opened on 2 May 2006 and is expected to last several months. The European Union had called for release of the defendants and is concerned about the fairness of trial, for which it has appointed an observer. Amnesty International is closely following the trial proceedings in order to assess whether the court adheres to internationally-recognized standards of fair trial. The trial's inclusion, on account of published articles, of 14 journalists - among them Serkalem Fasil, her brother, Dawit Fasil, and her partner, Satenaw editor Eskinder Negga - contradicts guarantees of media freedom in the Ethiopian Constitution as well as in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, both of which Ethiopia has ratified.
When a delegation of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) visited Ethiopia in March 2006, they witnessed the first permitted meeting in Kaliti prison between Serkalem Fasil, then five months pregnant, and her partner Eskinder Negga, who were detained in separate sections of the prison. (Since then, Eskinder Negga reportedly has been transferred to a part of another prison known as "end of the world".) Prime Minister Meles Zenawi agreed for the journalists to be allowed books in prison (originally refused by prison officials) and stated that he would reconsider the policy of prosecuting journalists for pending alleged Press Law offenses committed years ago.
Amnesty International considers that the CUD leaders, human rights defenders and journalists being tried are prisoners of conscience who have not used or advocated violence and believes that other defendants, about whom AI has less information, also could be prisoners of conscience.
Please call for the immediate & unconditional release of Serkalem Fasil and other prisoners of conscience, for fair trial for all her co-defendants, and for exclusion of the death penalty as a possible sentence. Seek assurances that defendants are treated humanely in custody and that any allegations of torture or ill-treatment are investigated independently and impartially.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
Office of the Prime Minister
PO Box 1031
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Salutation: Your Excellency
Ambassador Kassahun Ayele
Embassy of Ethiopia
3506 International Drive, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Salutation: Your Excellency
Airmail postage abroad: 84¢
