The Ethiopian government has released seven members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) from prison after more than four years of detention, according to an OLF spokesperson.
Lemi Gemechu, speaking to VOA’s Horn of Africa Service, confirmed that Abdi Regassa, Dawit Abdeta, Lammi Begna, Michael Boran, Kenessa Ayana, Gada Gabisa, and Gada Oljira were freed on Thursday from various prisons across the country.
“Just now, the Oromo Liberation Front leaders who have been imprisoned for over four years at different sites have been released,” Gemechu said. He added that the release process took place at Burayu police station outside Addis Ababa.
Abdi Regassa, a prominent figure among those released, once served as the commander of OLF’s military wing. The other freed individuals held positions within the OLF’s executive and central committees.
The OLF, in a statement on Facebook, said the members were released on bail. The party characterized their detention as “unjust” and claimed they were held for “exercising their legitimate political rights.”
Human rights groups had previously described the 2020 arrests as “purely political.”
The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs welcomed the releases, stating, “We remain ready to support negotiations aimed at ending the violence and promoting durable peace for all Ethiopians.”
As of this report, the Ethiopian government has not officially commented on the opposition figures’ release.
In a separate development, the family of Taye Dendea, a former Ethiopian state minister of peace, expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court’s decision to deny him bail. Dendea was arrested in December after posting comments critical of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The OLF, an opposition party, has long advocated for the rights and self-determination of the Oromo people, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.
