2014 prison census - Ethiopia: Yusuf Getachew
| Publisher | Committee to Protect Journalists |
| Publication Date | 17 December 2014 |
| Cite as | Committee to Protect Journalists, 2014 prison census - Ethiopia: Yusuf Getachew, 17 December 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/549804cd15.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
| Yusuf Getachew, Ye Muslimoch Guday | |
|---|---|
| Medium: | |
| Charge: | Anti-state |
| Imprisoned: | July 20, 2012 |
Police officers raided the Addis Ababa home of Yusuf, editor of the now-defunct Ye Muslimoch Guday (Muslim Affairs), as part of a broad crackdown on journalists and news outlets reporting on protests staged by Ethiopian Muslims. The Muslims were demonstrating against government policies they said interfered with their religious freedom. The government sought to link the protesters to Islamist extremists and tried to suppress coverage by arresting several local and international journalists and forcing publications to close down, according to local journalists and news reports.
After Yusuf's arrest, other Ye Muslimoch Guday journalists went into hiding, and the publication ceased operations, local journalists told CPJ.
Yusuf spent weeks in pre-trial custody at the Maekelawi federal detention center without access to his family and limited contact with his lawyer, according to local journalists.
In October 2012, he was formally charged under the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Law with plotting acts of "terrorism [and] intending to advance a political, religious, or ideological cause," according to local journalists. Yusuf told the court he had been beaten in custody, local journalists told CPJ.
Prosecutors accused Yusuf of inciting violence in columns in Ye Muslimoch Guday by alleging that the government-appointed Supreme Council for Muslim Affairs was corrupt and lacked legitimacy, according to local journalists and court documents obtained by CPJ. The prosecution also used as evidence Yusuf's CDs with Islamic teachings even though these were widely available in markets, according to local journalists.
The editor is being held at Kality Prison in Addis Ababa. The trial was ongoing in late 2014.
