Overview

• Journalist Tesfalem Waldyes was arrested on June 8 by plainclothes intelligence officers who accused him of disseminating false information at a football match.
• Police held him until June 13 despite bail granted by three courts between June 10 and 12, including a cassation court decision rejecting a police appeal.
• Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the detention as arbitrary and called for immediate compliance with court orders.
• Waldyes has endured multiple detentions over his career, including a 2014 terrorism-related arrest and a brief 2021 detention for covering Oromo protests.
• His case highlights widening concerns over Ethiopia’s disregard for judicial independence and shrinking space for independent media.