By AFPADDIS ABABA (AFP) – An Ethiopian kangaroo court on Tuesday sentenced five opposition leaders to death and 33 other people to life imprisonment for plotting to assassinate government officials, an AFP correspondent reported.
The Ethiopian government claimed in April it had uncovered a plot to kill government officials and sabotage infrastructure by a group called "Ginbot 7" allegedly led by the main opposition challenger in the disputed 2005 elections.
"The following five have committed grave offences and four of them have not learnt from their previous sentences," Judge Adam Ibrahim of the federal High Court said.
"Therefore we have been obliged to give the most severe sentences," he said.
Many of the accused were sentenced in absentia, including the alleged mastermind of the plot, US-exiled Berhanu Nega who served two years in prison after accusing Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's regime of stealing the 2005 polls.
Twenty-eight of those sentenced were present in the Addis Ababa courtroom, including Melaku Tefera, a senior opposition member who was among those sentenced to death.
The death sentences were handed down to the alleged political leaders of the plot while most of the 33 slapped with life in prison are active or retired army officers.
Death sentences are regularly pronounced in the east African nation -- the continent's second most populous -- but rarely carried out. The last execution is believed to have taken place in 2007.
The defendants' relatives and lawyers said they would appeal the sentences.
"I will appeal, I'm not satisfied with the decision. It's harsh, I hope it will be reversed after we appeal it," said Tidenekyalesh Tesfa, whose client Getu Worku was sentenced to life and had his property confiscated.
The relative of another army officer who was sentenced to life in jail struggled to hold back her tears after the sentences were pronounced.
"It's a pity. There is no justice in Ethiopia... the evidence was incomplete," she told AFP on condition of anonymity. "He served his country, he sacrificed his whole life for the military... but for what?"
The trial, one of the most high-profile in the country's recent history, comes against a tense political backdrop, ahead of general elections scheduled for May next year.
Rights groups have accused Meles' regime of instilling a climate of fear ahead of the polls.
"The spectre of the 2005 crackdown on the opposition and on the independent press is resurfacing in the run-up to the May 2010 general elections," the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in a recent statement.
A senior US official also voiced concern last month at what he described as a "reduction in political space and the ability of opposition parties to operate."
Some 200 people died in violence that erupted following the disputed results of the 2005 elections.
Berhanu Nega's now-defunct opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy had won an unprecedented number of seats.
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Ethiopia death sentences over assassination plot (BBC)
An Ethiopian court has sentenced five people to death and 33 others to life in prison for planning to assassinate government officials.
Prosecutors had said the convicted were part of the Ginbot 7 (15 May) group led by Berhanu Nega, a US-based dissident.
He was among those sentenced to death, as was opposition leader Melaku Tefera.
Mr Melaku was present in the Addis Ababa courtroom with 27 other accused. Some of the defendants have said they were tortured into confessing.
Convicting the men in November, Judge Adem Ibrahim said the court had not been convinced of the torture allegations.
The authorities have said they found weapons, including land mines, at the men's homes when they were arrested in April.
Army officers sentenced
"The... five have committed grave offences and four of them have not learnt from their previous sentences," said Judge Adem passing down the sentences.
"Therefore, we have been been obliged to give the most severe sentences."
Relatives of the men broke down in the courtroom as the sentences were read out, says the BBC's correspondent in Addis Ababa, Uduak Amimo.
The death sentences were reserved for what the court called the political leaders of the plot while those sentenced to life imprisonment were active or former military officers, AFP news agency said.
Lawyers for the defence said they would appeal.
The authorities have long accused Mr Berhanu of spearheading opposition plots.
He was arrested after being elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005 and jailed for treason.
He was pardoned in 2007 and left for the United States, where he began teaching economics at a university.
Mr Berhanu denies engaging in armed struggle against the government.
Rights groups have expressed concern that the government is trying to silence dissent before Ethiopia holds its next national election in June 2010.
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