Last night, as Journalist Eskinder Nega was about to board an airplane to fly to the Netherlands from Addis Ababa, he was detained by immigration and his passport was confiscated. Several hours later, the immigration official at the airport call him, gave him back his passport and told him he is cleared to travel.
Upon hearing the news, Pen America and Amnesty International condemned the action and demanded the Ethiopian government to allow Eskinder to travel. Pen America said in a statement: “We are appalled by this callous and baseless infringement on Eskinder’s freedom of movement. There is no active court case against Eskinder, and there are no grounds for him to be prevented from leaving the country. The Ethiopian government must cease acting with such flagrant disregard for the rights of its citizens. We call upon the government to immediately return Eskinder’s passport and permit him to travel.”
Amnesty International said: “The Ethiopian authorities stopped human rights defender Eskinder Nega and took his passport when he wanted to travel to the Netherlands. He was invited by Amnesty International to be present at the event on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Amnesty Netherlands.”
Eskinder has been imprisoned several times in the past twenty years. The last time was in 2011, after he had written a critical column about the arrest of journalists who, according to the government, might be terrorists. Nega was accused of “terrorism” and “high treason” and sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2012.
Eskinder Nega refused to sign a false confession at the beginning of this year about his membership of an organization that, according to the government, has terrorist motives. Yet he was released on February 14, 2018. But six weeks later, Nega was arrested again and held for twelve days.
