TAGS: Individuals at Risk, Urgent Action Network • Freedom of Expression, Freedom Voices, Prisoners and People at Risk, Prisoners and People at Risk: Detention and Imprisonment, Prisoners of Conscience • Africa, Ethiopia •

Urgent Action Victory! University Lecturer Released (Ethiopia: UA 123.19)

November 26, 2019

University lecturer Firew Bekele was released on 19 November, after spending three months in detention for his alleged role in writing and publishing a book “the Hijacked Revolution”. He was a prisoner of conscience and should have never been persecuted.

NO FURTHER ACTION IS REQUESTED. MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO SENT APPEALS.

Firew Bekele, a marketing lecturer at Rift Valley University, was released on 19 November. He was arrested on 17 August and charged under Ethiopia’s draconian Anti-Terrorism Proclamation (ATP).

For the last decade, the ATP has been constantly used to suppress any form of dissent. Firew Bekele was accused of writing a book that criticizes Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Firew Bekele denied having written the book. The head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, visited Firew Bekele in prison and called for his immediate release following the publication of Amnesty International’s Urgent Action on 20 September.

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