Attorney General Getachew Ambaye announced this morning that charges against 528 suspects were dropped in the first round. He told journalists today that 115 of them are detained at the federal level, including Dr Merera Gudina.
The remaining individuals are from the SNNP regional state and were arrested on suspicion of taking part in the violence that occurred in Gedio zone. The suspects will be freed Wednesday after receiving training today and tomorrow, he said.
He further said that convicted individuals are being identified to grant them pardon as per listed requirements. The process will take time, he added. It is to be recalled that heads of the four member parties of EPRDF have taken decisions to pardon some convicted politicians and individuals to build national consensus and widen the political space.
Accordingly, they will be released in two months’ time.
Eligible for the pardon are those:
– who were not convicted of killings and causing serious injuries to people
-who didn’t have a direct role to cause damage to large economic infrastructures
-who didn’t have a key role to destroy the constitutional order
-who took part innocently in conflicts and violence resulted from government’s low performance in some sectors.
