Gebrekidan, former editor of the defunct Amharic-language weekly Politika, was sentenced to one year in prison for publishing “false news” and was immediately jailed, according to several local sources. His conviction was handed down in connection with a 2002 report attributed to the BBC, which claimed that Ethiopia was training rebels in neighboring Eritrea. Gebrekidan is one of several journalists jailed under Ethiopia’s repressive 1992 Press Law, often on years-old charges, after the November 2005 crackdown.