No reason was provided to the family for Thursday’s arrest, and police did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. At a brief court hearing on Friday, where no lawyer was present, a judge ordered Kumerra’s detention for a further 14 days to give police time to investigate, the family said. In a statement on Monday, Reuters news agency strongly condemned Kumerra’s detention. The arrest followed the beating of a Reuters photographer, Tiksa Negeri, by two Ethiopian federal police officers on Dec. 16. Kumerra covered the Tigray conflict, but Reuters was unable to determine whether his arrest was connected to his work.

Source: Ethiopian News December 28, 2020 07:30 UTC