The Muslims who have been convicted are claiming that it was all unjust, a “kangaroo court,” that the government was railroading them for decrying its interference in religious matters. In other words, they are claiming victim status. What a new, bold, original strategy.
“Ethiopia jails 18 Muslims over alleged terror,” Associated Press, August 3, 2015:
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — A court in Ethiopia has handed jail terms ranging from seven to 22 years against 18 Muslims who were convicted on terror charges, including allegedly attempting to establish a religious government.
The sentencing on Monday attracted outcry from Muslim activists who opposed the trial.
Four of the suspects were sentenced to 22 years in prison, while the rest were given shorter jail terms.
Dimtsachin Yisema, a group lobbying for the release of Muslim detainees, said the sentences were “unjust” and called the Federal High Court a “kangaroo court.”
The convicts, who were tried under Ethiopia’s controversial anti-terrorism law, include Muslim leaders and activists who were arrested in July 2012 following six months of public protests in Addis Ababa and other towns over alleged government interference in religious affairs.
sidney penny says
Dimtsachin Yisema must realize that you cannot have kangaroo courts in Ethiopia.
Only Australia has and is allowed to have kangaroo courts.
RG says
Too bad somebody doesn’t come up with a good ‘wallop-b’ court! A well-aimed baseball bat might really solve a lot of problems! Yeah, I know it’s probably only the Aussies who will get this one–I hope!!!
Lynette says
Proof of kangaroo australian courts please. Give a few examples, when, where, who for etc!
Lia Wissing says
Congratulations, Ethiopia, for standing strong!
Abu says
@Lia, only STUPID ppl like u appreciate z Authoritarian regime of EPRDF, for sending an INNOCENT activists behind bars! Shame on u Lia!!!
Angemon says
This is not Twitter, Abu – would it kill you to use proper English?
Charli Main says
What are Ethiopian muslims still doing in Ethiopia. ?????
I would of thought that they would of been floating around the Mediterranean on planks of wood, with their Somali and Eritrean brothers, waiting to be ” rescued ” by the Italians and brought to Europe, where their every wish would be pandered too.
Voytek Gagalka says
“What are Ethiopian muslims still doing in Ethiopia?” That’s very good question. It looks that it is not enough for them that they took over Eritrea and separate it from the mainland, now they want to have WHOLE Ethiopia. It is called Hijra, or spread of Islam through migration, all according to Muhammad who first did it in the year zero of this calendar (or was it year 1 ?) by “escaping” to Medina. Yea, “escaping” my ass! He did it on purpose to conquer because since that time he become military leader and decided to spread that cancer through the sword.
Angemon says
Australia called, they want their animal back…
Never forget: no matter how screwed up a country is, it can always be made worse by adding an islamic religious government…
Old African lady with no teeth says
Not only screwed up country also nice country can become worse if it becomes an Islamic Republic. I am glad they are standing up against terrorism. Let me tell you one thing the jihadist will never conquer Ethiopia, never ever.
Angemon says
Old African lady with no teeth posted:
“Not only screwed up country also nice country can become worse if it becomes an Islamic Republic.”
As Sweden can attest to.
mortimer says
With the constant jihad turmoil in Africa, it’s hard to believe that Africans will not turn from Islam en masse.
abad says
Good work, Ethiopia. Just put all the Muslims in your nation on a boat headed for Saudi Arabia
dumbledoresarmy says
Or they can turf them out into Somalia, or into (North) Sudan. And then massively fortify the borders so the Muslims can’t get back in.
Matthieu Baudin says
Ethiopia needs to assert itself as a large non Muslim country straddling the north/south African divide.
The practice of Islamic Law, in localised regions with higher Muslim populations, should have no place in 21st Century Ethiopia, as it proceeds with the task of nation building and nurturing social stability.
dumbledoresarmy says
The Muslim ‘minority’ gameplay in Ethiopia is the same as in every other country where Muslims are currently a minority.
Multiply; consolidate; seize a chunk of territory and drive out the non-Muslim locals; then rinse and repeat. First a suburb, then a town, or a region or province; then demand political autonomy (see Kashmir, see Mindanao, see southern Thailand); but if this is foolishly granted by the Kuffar, then pocket the gains and redouble the jihad.
They demand their ‘own law’ in ‘their own’ chunk of turf, which they then aim to expand until they have taken over **the whole country**…then the jihad begins from the newly seized and Islamised territory, against the *next* lot of infidels.
If Thailand were to give the Muslims in the south independence (and if they did, they would be wise to remove all resident non-Muslims, before they are either killed by the Muslims, or force-‘converted’, or driven out), it won’t stop the Jihad. If the Philippines give the Muslims all of the huge island of Mindanao (within which Muslims are not even fifty percent of the population) to be their own, it won’t stop Jihad being plotted and carried out against the *rest* of the Philippines; if Israel lets the local Muslims create an “Arab Islamic State of Palestine” it won’t stop the Jihad against the Jews; and if India gave Pakistan *all* of Kashmir tomorrow, Pakistan would *still* sponsor never-ending acts of jihad terrorism against India.
It’s time that non-Muslim states simply dug in, faced reality, and *stopped* making concessions to Muslims. Don’t give them one more inch of actual or psychological ground…anywhere.
The Muslim Mob within *any* non-Muslim host society is essentially a Fifth Column; the vanguard or forward operating base, the first footholds, of a de facto empire, an empire of mass murder, cruelty, pillage and enslavement, misery and ruin. Got Muslims? – got Jihad. More Jihad, if the host society is accommodating and appeasing and is weak or perceived as such; less, if the host society is grimly *un*-accommodating and prepared to use overwhelming force when and as necessary.
So the best policy is for those infidel nations who *don’t* have any Muslims inside the gates already, to make damn sure they don’t import any; those who have few, should see to it that they discourage any more from coming in, and that they find ways of discouraging those already present, from remaining; and as for those that – like Ethiopia and Tanzania – have a very large Mohammedan Fifth Column, well, they’re in big trouble, and they have to decide whether to cut their losses and split off the main Muslim-infested area (with a total population exchange; if the Muslims get their ‘chunk’, then not one Muslim can be permitted to remain in the *non*-Muslim portion of the divided country) and massively fortify and henceforward resolutely defend the territory they (the infidels) intend to retain; or to treat the Muslims as what they are – an invading and occupying army – and start turfing them out…as the Greeks and Bulgarians did, back in the day, and the Spaniards and Portuguese. And as the Israelis *should* have done, in 1948, 1967, 1973 (if *no* Muslims had remained within what became Israel in 1948, Israel’s security situation in 1967 and 1973, not to mention its situation now, would be a LOT simpler).
shams78 says
Moro Muslims are native to Mindanao and were the majority in the early 20th century. Filipino Christians colonialist settlers are the majority now because of America’s violation of the Bates Treaty, illegaly invasion of the Moro Sultanates, America’s massacre of women and children at the crater in Bud Dajo, the massive settlement of Filipino Christian settler colonists from Luzon and the Visayas islands onto Mindanao, the multiple massacres and mass rapes perpetrated by the Philippine armed forces upon Moro women and children and the cannibalism done by Ilega Filipino settlers.
Paul says
They could have made an application for asylum for Britain claiming
that their “human rights” were being breached. Enough left-wing
agitators here who would have rallied round their cause.