20 December 2017
I wrote in August 2017, “Has Britain put liberty on trial by accusing a pro-democracy activist of terrorism?”,expressing my serious concern about a terrorism charge brought against Dr. Tadesse Kersmo, a British national of Ethiopian dissident was arrested by counter terrorism officers atHeathrow Airport in September 2016 after a trip to Eritrea and charged under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
On 5th July 2017, Dr.Tadesse Kersmo appeared at Westminster Magistrate and later released on bail as he pleaded not-guilty to all charges. The Magistrate judge referred the case, which is the first in relation to an Ethiopian opposition leader outside of the country, to be tried by a jury at a later date.
It was rather worrying to learn that the Crown Prosecution Service of the United Kingdom – a country with proud history of championing freedom and liberty, decided to bring such a case which tests the defensibility of a blanket application of the Act, the strength of the charge and the evidence, and the motive behind it. Ialso wrote in August 2017,that I have every confidence that the British justice system will defend liberty to the end and demonstrate that the state cannot dictate the outcome of a trial as is the case in Ethiopia.
It was a shock to us that Dr. Tadesse Kersmo, a thinker and public educator who has written books and produced over 150 education programs on Ethiopian Satellite Televisionis expected to read through a variety of materials available in the public domain and sometimes privately is accused of accessing a material available on Amazon. Dr. Tadesse Kersmo, has been a victim of a high-profile cyber- attack by agents of the Ethiopian Government in 2014,
In a trial which lasted for 2 weeks and 2days at Snarebrooks Crown Court, Dr. Tadesse Kersmo was acquitted of all 8 charges levelled against him by the prosecution. In a deliberation which took no more than 2 hours a jury of 12 men and women unanimously acquitted Dr.Tadesse Kersmo of all charges and he walked a free man. According to postings on social media from the Court compound following the verdict, members of the Ethiopian Community who stood with him throughout the trial were seen hugging each other and shedding tears of joy and relief. The extraordinary courage of his wife, Shewaye Shiferaw who has been by his side throughout the trial, has been the source of his strength.
According to members of the Ethiopian Community who closely knowDr. Tadesse Kersmo, are immensely impressed by the strength of his faith in justice and the depth of his commitment to the cause of freedom and democracy. While he is relieved that the trial is over and he is delighted with the verdict, he is immediately thinking of the task of winning the fight to reclaim the human rights freedom of millions of Ethiopians taken away by the repressive regime in Ethiopia.
Considering the worsening political situation in Ethiopia as the result of the deliberate policy of a repressive regime, the persecution Dr Tadesse Kersmo has been and is being subjected to, and the significance of the cause he is selflessly working for; it is my contention that the Crown Prosecution Service should have never brought this case to Court and so much tax payer’s money wasted. Instead the British Government should have stood against political repression perpetrated by the regime in Ethiopia against its people for decades;Dr Tadesse Kersmo is trying to stop.
In fact this case has instead become an opportunity to lay bare in front of the Court and the British public the deplorable human rights record of the repressive authoritarian regime in Ethiopia and the duplicity in the foreign policy of the UK Government and its collusion with the brutal regime in Ethiopia.
I understand that Dr. Tadesse Kersmo is grateful to all those who stood by him during this difficult time and the impressive legal team of Bindmans Solicitors llp, who represented him in the trial.
The writer can be contacted on [email protected]
