USCIRF Calls On Ethiopia To Release 29 Religious Freedom Protesters

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom yesterday issued a press release calling on the Ethiopian government to release 29 Muslims who were among a larger group initially arrested a year ago. While most were released, the 29 were eventually charged under the government’s Anti-Terror Proclamation. The arrests grew out of Friday protests beginning in December 2011 against efforts by the government and the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council to impose the al-Ahbash interpretation of Islam. USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett said: "We are deeply concerned that Ethiopia’s government is seeking to silence peaceful religious freedom proponents by detaining and trying them in secret under trumped-up terrorism charges."