Editor jailed for ‘false news’ released pending appeal

UPDATED: May 16, 2006
Original Alert: December 12, 2005

Leykun Engeda, Dagim Wonchif

IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION

CPJ confirmed that Leykun Engeda, who was sentenced on December 9 to 15 months in prison, was released pending a decision in his appeal. The former editor-in-chief and publisher of the Amharic-language weekly Dagim Wonchif was convicted of publishing false news in 1999 about a rebel organization known as the Ethiopian Patriotic Front, according to a CPJ source. His appeal was pending before Ethiopia’s Supreme Court, a local source said.

For more information on this case, see CPJ’s December 12 alert: http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Ethiopia12dec05na.html.