Ethiopian police have arbitrarily arrested and detained dozens of Tigrayans without legal procedure, Amnesty International has said on Friday in a report.
The arrests appear to be ethnically motivated and many police stations are filled with people speaking Tigringna said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.
Amnesty International urges the Ethiopian government to end this wave of arbitrary arrests, and to ensure that all detainees are either promptly charged with internationally recognized crimes and given fair trials, or immediately and unconditionally released.
The government must also inform families of the whereabouts of those detained and ensure that they have access to lawyers and their relatives.”
“While some people have been released on bail and hundreds of others remain in jail while whereabouts of many others unknown,” it said
Ethiopian law requires police to present detainees in court within 48 hours of arrest to review the grounds for arrest. Promptly bringing detainees before a judicial authority is an important safeguard against torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance.
Amnesty International has used at least 14 individuals who it interviewed them remotely including former detainees, eyewitnesses to arrests, and relatives and lawyers of those still in detention.
MG/abj/APA