News: Police transfers Tamrat Negera’s court case to state of emergency command post, fails to bring Meaza Mohammed to court

By Mahlet Fasil @MahletFasil

Addis Abeba, December 31, 2021- The Gelan district court in the Oromia special zone surrounding Finfinne yesterday decided to transfer the case of Tamrat Negera to the state of emergency command post. At the previous hearing, the police requested to remand and investigate Tamrat who was arrested on December 10, 2021.  Similarly, police declined to bring journalist Meaza Mohammed to court citing the state of emergency. 

Yesterday, the police told the court that it no longer needed additional time to investigate Tamrat and closed the file, prompting the court to transfer the case to the command post. The court allowed the proceeding for the bail request made by Tamrat’s defense team. 

Tamrat Negera, the editor in chief of the online media Terara Network was arrested on December 10 from his house. Days later, the family of Tamrat was unable to find him at Addis Abeba Police Commission’s Sostegna Police Station where he was initially detained after his arrest. Later it was revealed that he was transferred to Oromia police and he is detained at a police station in Gelan. 

Similarly, Journalist Meaza Mohammed has been detained for 20 days without appearing in court. The co-founder of the online media outlet, Roha Media was arrested from her house in Addis Abeba on December 11. 

Her husband Robel Gebeyehu disclosed to Addis Standard that her defense team filed a habeas corpus issue habeas corpus at the Federal First Instance court 2^nd bench. However, at the hearing on December 23, 2021, the police failed to appear in court and explain why it will not release Meaza, Robel said. At another hearing on December 27, Addis Abeba police failed to present her to the court, according to Robel who added, “Instead they explained to the court through a letter that she can’t be brought to court since she was arrested by the state of emergency command post.” AS