Addis Abeba – The widely circulating news alleging the resignation of Gedion Timothewos (PhD), as Ethiopia’s Minister of Justice, is “baseless” and that the Minister has neither the “interest” nor the “plan” to resign, according a well placed source who spoke to Addis Standard on conditions of anonymity.
“He has no initiative to resign from the institution, and the information itself reached him from other people,” the source said, adding that “he has no plans, nor the interest to submit a resignation. He is engaged in his regular work.”
Local news outlets and several accounts on X (formerly twitter) and Facebook are widely circulating the news of Gedion’s resignation since Thursday.
Gedion, a familiar personality within Ethiopia’s justice sector especially since the coming of Prime Minister Aby Ahmed in 2018, was a hand-picked appointee of PM Abiy as state minister at the federal attorney general’s office.
Prior to being appointed as as state minister, Gedion served as a prominent Assistant Professor of Law at the Addis Abeba University (AAU) and was known for his critical research papers in areas focusing on constitutional law, among others.
In September 2020 he became the Federal Attorney General. He only held that position for a year until the Attorney General’s office was renamed to the Ministry of Justice in October 2021, with Gedion becoming the Minister.
As a member of PM Abiy’s Council of Ministers, Gedion became a familiar face to the general public when the Council declared a six-month state of emergency on 04 October 2020, two days after the war in the Tigray region erupted. In November 2021 he appeared on national TV to announce a nationwide state of emergency for six months following the decision by Council.
Along with Ambassador Redwan Hussien, Security Advisor of PM Abiy, Gedion played key role by representing the federal government in the Pretoria peace talks that ended Ethiopia’s devastating war in the Tigray region with a cessation of hostilities.
Most recently, he participated in the peace talks between the federal government and representatives of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) that took place in Dar es salaam, Tanzania in November last year. AS
