Muhe Abdu, 25, was born in West Arsi, Adaba district, Sole Village. He attended school until grade 10th. Between 2016 and 2023, this ambitious young entrepreneur was imprisoned four times without charge and trial.
During his first two detentions, which lasted for three months in 2016 and for four months in 2017, security officers brutally tortured him. Following his release, he migrated to Dubai with the support of his friends and family. While in Dubai, Muhe was granted a work visa to visit the United States. He returned to Ethiopia to say goodbye to his family, spending most of his time in Addis Ababa/Finfine. However, government security forces detained him in Shashemene City on 12 November 2020, and he remained behind bars for one year and seventeen days. When he was arrested, Muhe had $8523 on hand. This money disappeared later.
After his release, Muhe had no options: his visa to the United States had expired, and he had no capital. With the support of his relatives, he managed to open a small business for computer and mobile installations in Shashemene City near his birth place. While living a normal life with the earnings he gets from the small business he opened, Muhe heard that security forces had ordered for him to be executed on sight.
Authorities detained Muhe again on 20 October 2022. He describes his experience as follows (edited for clarity):
“At first, I didn’t even recognize where they kept me because they tortured me so badly. I noticed I was detained in the nearby military camp in Adaba when I regained my consciousness. They handcuffed and jailed me alone in a single dark room for three months. The guards subjected me to one torture after another until I fainted. They didn’t allow anyone from my family to communicate with me. They used to drop me the meal and water brought by my family, but I barely ate the meat for fear of being poisoned. After three months, they moved me to the Adaba District prison center. On the way, they stopped and showed me what they did to my small business office and my home. They had taken everything I owned: I had a laptop, phones, and different electronics. It was all worth more than 100,000 Birr. They destroyed the rest with a bulldozer.
Day to day, I found it quite difficult to get dressed, eat properly, use the restroom, and perform other activities because I was forced to wear handcuffs. One day, a public prosecutor visited the prisoners and I appealed to him to remove them. He responded, ‘it could be a lot worse, and it’s better for you to remain silent.’ They finally removed the handcuffs after eight months. After a lot of arguing among themselves, they released me with a strong warning on 27 August 2023.
According to the security forces, the reason for my detention was my active engagement on social media. They claim that I was the person who provided information to Oromo Media Network (OMN) and Kello Media.” A person should not be detained for merely exercising the constitutionally granted right.
Furthermore, they accused him of being responsible for the logistical support provided to the youths of the area to join the OLA forces. However, the authorities didn’t corroborate their claims with evidence. Rather than following due process, the security forces sadistically tortured him to extract the information they wanted. The reason that led to these repeated arrests was his active involvement on the social media and protests organized by the youths to ask for the freedom of the Oromo people against the injustice by the ruling government. Muhe is not the only one who has suffered from these arrests and detentions: to this day, security forces threaten his family.
Currently, he has migrated to another location out of fear for his safety and remains under threat.
International Law
The right to be free from arbitrary arrest and detention is enshrined under fundamental human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), including the FDRE Constitution. By detaining Muhe without a warrant and failing to bring him before a court of law, authorities committed human rights violations.
Therefore, OLLAA urges the Ethiopian government, as a signatory state to the aforementioned human rights instruments, to protect its citizens’ right from arbitrary detention. It is also obligated to uphold these rights under its own constitution.
