The political prisoners whose freedom was announced on Friday include opposition figure Jawar Mohammed, senior Tigray party officials and several prominent members of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
The Ethiopian Government on Friday announced that it would pardon and release some of the country’s most high-profile political detainees in a bid to promote national dialogue.
The political prisoners whose freedom was announced on Friday include opposition figure Jawar Mohammed, senior Tigray party officials and several prominent members of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
Others listed are opposition leaders from the Oromo ethnic group, the largest in Ethiopia, and the Amhara.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace laureate, who reportedly went to the battlefront in November to lead his troops, also called for “national reconciliation” and “unity” in a statement issued as Ethiopia celebrated Orthodox Christmas.
According to AFP, the move came amid a lull in the brutal 14-month conflict in Northern Ethiopia after a dramatic shift in battlefield fortunes at the end of last year saw government forces retake a string of towns and the TPLF retreat to its stronghold in Tigray.
“The key to lasting unity is dialogue. Ethiopia will make any sacrifices to this end,” the government communications service said in a statement announcing the amnesty.
“Its purpose is to pave the way for a lasting solution to Ethiopia’s problems in a peaceful, non-violent way… especially with the aim of making the all-inclusive national dialogue a success," it added.
It was not immediately clear how many of those granted amnesty had yet been freed.
However, Ethiopia’s state broadcaster, EBC, named both Jawar and Eskinder Nega, who were detained in July 2020 following deadly unrest over the killing of popular ethnic Oromo artist, Hachalu Hundessa, as those granted amnesty.
Eskinder, leader of the Balderas party, left a detention centre on Friday evening.
According to the report, Tuli Bayis, a lawyer for Jawar of the Oromo Federalist Congress party and others, told The Associated Press news agency that they refused to leave the prison facility as the order for their release came late in the day.
“They have security risks, so they preferred to exit the correction facility in daytime,” Tuli said, adding he was not sure why the order for their release came now.
“We heard it is an amnesty, that’s what we know for now.”
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Justice said the amnesty for Jawar and Nega was granted “to make the upcoming national dialogue successful and inclusive”.
Ethiopian lawmakers on December 29 approved a bill to establish a commission for national dialogue amid international pressure for negotiations to end the war.
In 2018, Ethiopia released opposition leaders, journalists and protesters from its notorious prisons.
Many also had the charges against them dropped and were calling for the release of those still in jail.