EHRC: Arena-Tigray party candidate murder probe [March 2010 Report]

In the run-up to the May 23/2010 election, Arena-Tigray party alleged a politically motivated murder of one its members. The deceased was  Aregawi Gebre Yohannes, who was running for the House of People’s Representatives in Tigray Regional State.

Though the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia(NEBE) proposed to conduct a joint investigation with ruling party, EPRDF, and Arena-Tigray party, the latter rejected the idea. Instead Arena-Tigray party demanded an investigation by an ‘independent body’, though the party never made its demand in clear terms, it could only mean the participation of diplomatic or other foreign organizations in the investigation. Nonetheless, NEBE carried out an investigation on its own initiative.

Subsequently, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission(EHRC) conducted another inquiry and issued a 17-page report and arrived at a conclusion similar to that of the NEBE.

The following text is a copy of the ‘Summary of the report and conclusions’ section of the 17 page report of the EHRC.

You may download the full doc in PDF – HERE [Report of Ethiopian Human Rights Commission the investigation into the death of Ato Aregawi Gebre Yohannes March 2010]

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ETHIOPIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

Findings of the investigation into the circumstances of the death of Ato Aregawi Gebre Yohannes, a member of the “Arena Tigray” political party who was standing for election to the House of People’s Representatives in the 2010 election in Tigray Regional State.

SUMMARY OF THE REPORT AND CONCLUSIONS

3.1. Decision to Investigate

Following the Constitution of Ethiopia and in regard of the international human rights proclamations and guidelines that are accepted by Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, which has the mandate to safeguard human rights throughout Ethiopia, has been doing everything to investigate possible issues of human rights whenever these are reported to it or whenever a case comes to its notice for investigation.

Following the death of Ato Aregawi G/Yohannes, a member of the “Arena Tigray” party and a candidate for election to the House of Peoples Representatives, in Hitsets village, in Kisad-Gaba town in Asgede Tsimbla woreda in the western zone of Shire in Tigray region on March 1st, the Commission set up a team to investigate the case. The team traveled to Tigray Region in March to carry out some 23 interviews, and collected a significant amount of additional information in the course of its investigation.

3.2 The Results of the Investigation:

• Ato Aregawi G/Yohannes was stabbed and killed in his bar in Hitsets village by Ato Tsige Berhane Alemayehu.
• The killer and the deceased had no prior relationship and had never quarreled before.
• Information provided by the niece of the deceased and the friends of the killer made it clear that the deceased had been called out of his bed by his niece.
• A row broke out over the payment of a bill; the deceased hit the killer on the head and the killer then stabbed the deceased. All witnesses concurred with this version of events.
• The deceased was arrested, tried and convicted, and given a 15 year sentence. Kibrom, another of those present has also been accused of involvement and his case is still being pursued.
• Because of the killer’s admission of guilt, and sufficient evidence, the court was able to decide the case with exemplary speed.
• The “Arena-Tigray” party never reported the case to a court. It was apparent from their interview that “Arena Tigray” did not trust the Commission and it would have preferred to ask an international organization to investigate the case.

3.3 Conclusions: No political motive for the killing:

Given the fact that the killer admitted his guilt, that he had stabbed the deceased with a knife after he had himself been hit on the head with a stick and that all the evidence collected from its various interviews confirmed this, the team reached the unanimous conclusion that there were no political motives or political involvement in the killing of Ato Aregawi.

The trial and sentence of the killer was quick but quite normal in the circumstances:

Some relatives felt the sentence was too light and the case had been completed too quickly but the team noted that Criminal Code 134-1 allows the court to reach an immediate decision if the accused admits his guilt. Additionally, there was sufficient evidence from the deceased’s niece and friends of the killer who were present at the time of the killing to avoid any doubt. It might be noted that implementation of the Business Progress Re-engineering in the Tigray Region judiciary has meant much quicker judicial processes have become the norm.

Recommendations:

The team would suggest this report should be disseminated to government and non-government organizations, and to the public, to provide a better and more accurate understanding of this case, as a matter of urgency.