Chief prosecutor jailed

The Federal High Court has sentenced the Special Public Chief Prosecutor, Girma Wakjira, to one month’s imprisonment for contempt of court, said a report posted on the pro-government Walta Information web site 14 July. Chief prosecutor Girma was head of the special prosecutor’s office, which is prosecuting former Ethiopian officials accused of genocide. According to government reports, the verdict was passed on Girma after he was found guilty of “obstruction of justice” and “jeopardising the court’s neutrality and independence”. Girma had distributed a statement to the media on 12 July saying he would not attend the court until the presiding judge was removed. He had claimed the judge, Tafese Yirga Gebre-Medhin, was a member of the former ruling Workers Party of Ethiopia (WPE). The Federal High Court said Girma’s statement not only defamed a judge, but was also an attack on the whole judiciary system.
Established under deposed Soviet-supported dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, WPE was a crucial political and organising tool used for some of the worst excesses of the regime. It was banned by the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front government, formed in 1991. Many of the former officials charged with genocide and crimes against humanity belonged to the WPE.