Ethiopia: End of prosecution of Tigrayan leaders

Tigray People's Liberation Front fighter (illustration image). The TPLF has just been removed from the list of terrorist organizations on which the party has been placed since May 2021. AP - Ben Curtis

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The Ethiopian Ministry of Justice announced on Thursday (March 30th) the cessation of legal proceedings against civilian and military leaders of Tigray since the beginning of the conflict in this region of northern Ethiopia. This follows the peace agreement signed in Pretoria in November 2022.

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With our regional correspondent, Florence Morice

The Ministry of Justice does not give details on the personalities concerned, nor on the nature of the charges that have just been dropped. In November 2020, however, at the beginning of the conflict, Ethiopian state media reported the issuance of nearly "a hundred arrest warrants" against TPLF leaders and senior officers of the Tigray army and police for "treason".

TPLF removed from terrorist organization list

Among those targeted were the chairman of the Tigrayan party Debretsion Gebremichael and his spokesman Getachew Reda. The latter was appointed last week by Addis Ababa to head Tigray's interim civil administration, provided for in the Pretoria peace agreement. This lifting of prosecution also comes as the TPLF has just been removed from the list of terrorist organizations on which the party was placed since May 2021.

Will the crimes committed in this conflict be tried?

Addis Ababa says no. The peace agreement provides that crimes committed "during the conflict" will be addressed as part of a "transitional justice" process that the Ethiopian government has promised to establish. Even if many observers saw as a bad signal the fact that this same government tried in February to revoke the mandate of a UN commission of experts, working precisely to highlight the crimes committed during this conflict.

► Read also: Ethiopia: who is Getachew Reda, new head of the interim civilian government of Tigray

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  • Ethiopia
  • Justice
  • Human rights
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  • UN