February 15/2008

FORGOTTEN POLITICAL PRISONERS

RELEASE ABERA YEMANEAB AND TAMRAT LAYNE

Abera Yemaneab flew to Addis Ababa from his exile home, Washington DC, to take part in a Peace and Reconcilation Conference. It was December 1993 and he was arrssted at the airport and taken to prison. In April of the same year, a court ordered that he should be released but the EPRDF regime kept him in prison and after 12 years of detention sentenced him to a ten years term. He was released,denied the right to join his family in America, rearrested and sentenced to a 25 years prison term.

 Tamrat Layne was Prime Minster of the EPRDF regime and one of those who was backing the illegal actions and human rights violations. His turn came when his political differences with Meles Zenawi and the power holding Tigrean front (TPLF) became acute and he was railroaded as a corrupt offical and sent to prison. He was denied due process and sentenced again and again by a vindictive regime. Tamrat,unlike the TPLF leader Seye Abrha who is now released from prison, does not have any powerful supporters crying for his release and it seems probable that he will pass years and years behind bars despite his children's appeal for his release. Tamrat was part of the regime, like the released Seye, and is respsonsible for many human rights violations but his imprisonment is not linked  this or to his alleged corruption.He is jailed because he differed politically with the ruling clique.

Both Abera and Tamrat are illegally behind bars. They seem to be "forgotten" by many. SOCEPP stands against this forgetfulness and calls for the immediate release of thse victims of injustice.

 Release Abera Yemaneab and Tamrat Layne!

SOCEPP