Getachew Shiferaw was arrested in late December 2015 and charged in May last year with involvement in the operations of the outlawed anti-government group Ginbot 7. Getachew, formerly a freelance writer for several magazines, was also editor-in-chief of the opposition Semayawi Party's Negere Ethiopia publication at the time of his arrest. Ginbot 7 was formed by opposition figures who took part in the disputed 2005 election. Ethiopia's 547-seat parliament does not have a single opposition politician, and opposition groups accuse the government of constant harassment and intimidation. On Thursday, an opposition politician was sentenced to six and a half years in prison over a series of anti-government comments on Facebook that the court deemed to have encouraged terrorist acts.

Source: Ethiopian News May 26, 2017 13:52 UTC