{"id":83291,"date":"2018-02-13T19:54:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T00:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ethiopianreview.com\/index\/?guid=cb5c682964e2259f3c1695a1627395cd"},"modified":"2019-02-05T02:40:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T07:40:34","slug":"mass-protests-force-ethiopian-government-to-free-opposition-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/83291","title":{"rendered":"Mass protests force Ethiopian government to free opposition leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethiopianreview.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/bekele-gerba.jpg?resize=780%2C410\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"410\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-82768\" \/><br \/>\nEthiopia has released a senior opposition leader from prison and dropped all charges against him after demonstrators blocked roads and staged protest rallies in several towns.<br \/>\nBekele Gerba, secretary general of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), was arrested in December 2015 after mass protests broke out in the Oromiya region over accusations that farmers were being forced to sell land with scant compensation.<br \/>\nHe was held initially on terrorism charges, later reduced to incitement to violence.<br \/>\n\u201cHe just walked out of prison. We have confirmed that all charges against him have been dropped,\u201d said Mulatu Gemechu, a member of the OFC\u2019s leadership.<br \/>\nState-affiliated media confirmed Bekele had been freed along with seven other opposition figures and that the charges against him had been dropped. Ethiopia\u2019s information minister was not available for comment.<br \/>\nBekele\u2019s release came amid a three-day strike across Oromiya province, which surrounds the capital, as well as a mass pardoning of dissidents by the government aimed at reducing unrest that has simmered since 2015. [&#8230;] CONTINUE READING<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ethiopia has released a senior opposition leader from prison and dropped all charges against him after demonstrators blocked roads and staged protest rallies in several towns. Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), was arrested in December 2015 after mass protests broke out in the Oromiya region over accusations that farmers were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2991],"class_list":["post-83291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethiopian-news","tag-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-lFp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263995,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83291\/revisions\/263995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}