Judge what you will; I don’t teach young people how to weakness at this age!!
Federal High Court in the capital Addis Ababa sentenced Tadios Tantu, a respected journalist and author, to six years and three months of jail terms without parole. The court also ruled that he pay 20,000 Ethiopian birr in fine.
Government accused him of three counts of offenses : “disseminating hate speech”, “inciting violence” and “obstructing the movement of the Defense Force.”
It is an interview that Tadios Tantu gave to an Ethiopia based Youtube channel that the government reportedly used against him as evidence in the “disseminate hate speech” charge.
Tadios used to be active in Ethiopian opposition party politics before. In recent years, he was speaking out against the Orommumma ideology and its move to Oromize Ethiopia at the expense of others. Tadios appeared at the constitutional affairs bench in Ledeta. He has been in jail for more than two years now.
The court ruling against the eighty four years old Ethiopian who is also a father of six is widely seen as politically motivated repression and rights abuse rather than a court proceeding.
Yared Hailemariam, prominent Human rights advocate in Ethiopia, remarked “for me than justice, the vengeance is more visible.” The court ruling is trending among Ethiopians in social media. The sentiment is the same ; the ruling is politically motivated.
According to reports emerging on social media, he was asked if he has something he wants to share to be considered for sentencing. His response was “You can rule whatever you want, I will not teach weakness to the youth in my old age.”
