US blogger given life sentence in Ethiopian prison

post from Ubergizmo on 27 January 2012 11:24:08 AM. © Ubergizmo

The Federal High Court in Ethiopia has dropped a life sentence on expatriate journalist and blogger Elias Kifle. Kifle’s occupation is the editor of the Washington D.C.-based blog, Ethiopian Review, where he was sentenced without being present at the courtroom. While there were whispers going around earlier that he could very well be handed down the death penalty which is the maximum for his alleged crime of “political terrorism” in Ethiopia, I am quite sure that he and his family heaved a collective sigh of relief with the new sentence. Kifle is not the only person to be found guilty, as other defendants were also in the same boat as Kifle (although with differing sentences). (more…)