All three men are prisoners of conscience—convicted and imprisoned because of their legitimate and peaceful activities. They should be immediately and unconditionally released. The trial fell short of international standards of fair trial in a number of ways. The other five men also sentenced today should be retried or released. The Ethiopian government is treating calls for peaceful protest as a terrorist act and is outlawing the legitimate activity of journalists and opposition members.

In June, the Ethiopian Federal High Court [official website, in Amharic] convicted [JURIST report] 24 journalists, political opposition leaders and others under the country's Anti-Terrorism Proclamation of 2009 [text], according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. Ethiopia has faced consistent criticism since it passed [JURIST report] the anti-terrorism law in 2009. In January, the Ethiopian court convicted [JURIST report] three journalists, a political opposition leader and a politician's assistant for conspiring to commit acts of terrorism in violation of the controversial law. Human rights groups such as HRW have criticized the conviction and called the government to drop all charges. In December HRW stated [JURIST report] that the controversial law is "fundamentally flawed and being used to repress legitimate reporting." The statement came after two Swedish journalists were convicted [Bloomberg report] of supporting terrorism.