Ethiopians begin the New Year with the long-standing tradition Pardon

(Bedlu Haile)

Last week, the government of Ethiopia pardoned about ten thousand prisoners for the 2009 Ethiopian New Year. The federal government has released about eight hundred prisoners in various federal prisons, who met the requirements for clemency.

Tigray, Oromia, SNNP, Benshangul-Gumuz and Afar states pardoned a total of 9, 833 inmates following Ethiopian New Year. Oromia pardoned 5,463 convicts, while SNNP, Tigray, Benshangul-Gumuz and Afar states released 3,300, 92, 111 and 35 prisoners, respectively.

According to Attorney General Getachew Ambaye, those who had committed acts of domestic violence as well as convicted of human trafficking and corruption were not involved in the pardoned list.

Among the pardoned included members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Gibot 7 (Patriots Front), the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), and the Gambella People’s Liberation Movement (GPLM).

The government also freed 135 Muslims who had been convicted on religious extremism and terrorism related crimes in connection with the 2009 Ethiopian New Year. Six intimates sentenced in Abubeker Ahmed et al case for attempting to forcefully destroy the Constitution were also pardoned.

The prisoners were freed after they wrote a repentance letter, which led to presidential pardon. The presidential pardon is granted as per the Proclamation to Provide for the Procedure of Granting and Executing Pardon, which is enacted based on Article 71(7) of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Granting pardon is an international practice.

In legal and political literatures, pardon is often used generically to describe the power vested in the head of state to grant clemency in individual cases. It includes such subcategories as full pardon, conditional pardon, commutation, remission, and reprieve. Sometimes, however, it refers only to certain categories.

Pardons have served three main functions: to remedy a miscarriage of justice, to remove the stigma of a conviction (and the disabilities thereby entailed), and to mitigate a penalty. The first two objectives are usually achieved by means of a full pardon; the other forms are employed for mitigating the sentence. These very different objectives have resulted in some confusion as to the legal effects of a pardon.

Thus, a pardon is sometimes held to "blot out guilt" - a necessary outcome where the pardon was brought about by a miscarriage of justice, but an inappropriate result in other cases. A commutation substitutes one recognized form of penalty for another. A conditional pardon is more flexible, the only usual requirement being that the condition attaching to the pardon be reasonable. A remission simply implies cancellation of the penalty, wholly or partly. Finally, a reprieve denotes the deferment of a sentence's execution. This mode is typically adopted in capital cases; the penalty is then commuted to a prison term.

Under Ethiopian law, the objective of Pardon is defined as:

Objective of Pardon

The main objective of pardon shall be to ensure the interests of the public, government, and offenders by re-integrating criminal offenders into the community and make them productive citizens upon ascertaining that they have repented and reformed.

The scope of the presidential power of pardon covers federal courts, military courts, final criminal penalties rendered by regional state court entertaining federal jurisdiction.

The application for pardon is reviewed by a formally established a Board of Pardon, which examines petition of pardon and submits recommendations to the President. The Board is accountable to the President and have the following members: The Minister of Justice, Minister of Health, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Minister of Federal Affairs, Minister of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, Minister of National Defense, Deputy Commissioner General of the Federal Police Commission, Deputy Director General of the Federal Prison Administration and two persons who are loyal to the Constitution and having high moral standing assigned by the President from organizations having broad representation of the society.

For example in September 2007, the government granted pardon to 10,000 people. In the next month, 44 OLF members who were convicted of serious crimes after serving 16 years in prison were pardoned. In July and August 2007, the government pardoned 71 individuals arrested following the violence in 2005. The pardons permitted the defendants' future political participation.

In October 2009, the government granted amnesty to 384 prisoners. Again in December 15, the government granted amnesty to 10 leaders and members of the former Coalition for Unity and Democracy based on a recommendation from the National Pardon Board. At year's end several hundred other political detainees, including CUD, ONLF, and OLF members, remained in prison.

Similarly in September 2010, the federal government and Amhara and Oromia regional governments granted pardons to more than 9,000 prisoners, in keeping with a longstanding tradition for celebration of the new year.

In February the government pardoned 182 members of the AEUP previously convicted of threatening the "constitutional order" during the violent aftermath of the 2005 national elections. The pardons reportedly were part of a negotiated agreement for the AEUP leadership to participate in EPRDF-led talks on the enactment of an electoral code of conduct for political parties.

Last year, in September, in keeping with a long-standing tradition of issuing pardons at the Ethiopian New Year, the federal government pardoned 238 prisoners. Regional governments also pardoned 12,941 prisoners in Amhara, Oromia, and Benishangul-Gumuz. Ethiopians began the New Year that began this month in the spirit of forgiveness in keeping with their long-standing tradition.