ETHIOPIA: A Minor Gets Prison Terms for Alleged Instigation
HRLHA – URGENT ACTION October 14, 2014
The Human Rights
League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) strongly condemns the sentencing
of Abde Jemal, a fourteen-year old minor, in adults’ court to four years
in prison and $700.00 Birr fine for allegedly inciting people to
political violence. According to HRLHA’s correspondents, Abde Jemal was
arrested by the security agents while tending his parents’ cattle out in
the field. HRLHA has learnt that Abde Jemal was severely beaten up (in
other words, physically tortured) following his arrest by members of the
security force in order to coerce him into confessing in court to the
alleged crime. To begin with, this was allowed to happen despite the
provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990, to
which Ethiopia is a signatory, and which clearly states under Article
37(a) that State Parties shall ensure that “No child shall be subjected
to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment”; and additionally guarantees under article 40, sub-article
2(a) that every child alleged as or accused of having infringed the penal law should … “Not be compelled to give testimony or to confess guilt.”
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