CONFESS OR STAY IMPRISONED
“CONFESS OR STAY IMPRISONED” FANA CONDEMNS ABIY AHMED LED OPP REGIM’S FORCED-CONFESSION CAMPAIGN AGAINST DETAINED AMHARA JOURNALISTS AND POLITICAL PRISONERS
FEDERATION OF AMHARAS IN NORTH AMERICA (FANA)
8/18/20263 min read
“CONFESS OR STAY IMPRISONED”:
FANA CONDEMNS ABIY AHMED LED OPP REGIM’S
FORCED-CONFESSION CAMPAIGN AGAINST DETAINED AMHARA JOURNALISTS AND
POLITICAL PRISONERS
Following confirmation by the Committee to Protect Journalists that five Ethiopian journalists
have been pressured to sign forced-confession “apology” letters after three years of pre-trial
detention, FANA calls on donor nations to review all assistance to the Abiy Ahmed led Oromo
Prosperity Party (OPP) regime and demand the release of all Amhara political prisoners.
The Federation of Amharas in North America (FANA) condemns Ethiopia’s ongoing campaign
to coerce detained Amhara journalists and political prisoners into signing “apology” letters as
a condition for release – a practice now independently documented by the Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ) on August 13, 2026.
According to CPJ, five Ethiopian journalists: Gobeze Sisay, Meskerem Abera, Genet Asmamaw,
Dawit Begashaw, and Abay Zewdu – have been detained since 2023 on terrorism charges
tied to their reporting on the Amhara war. Their lawyer, Solomon Gezahagn, told CPJ that
prison officials have threatened his clients, isolated them, and pressured them to sign letters
“taking responsibility” for the crisis in the Amhara region and promising to abandon journalism. The journalists have refused. CPJ further reports that more than 300 politicians,
journalists, and other Amhara detainees facing terrorism charges have been asked to sign
similar letters. These are not pardons. They are confessions extracted under duress from
citizens the state has imprisoned for over three years without a verdict.
The Abiy Ahmed led OPP regime has framed the letters as a “pardon” process. But as CPJ documents, Ethiopian law permits pardons only after conviction and final sentence – and None of these journalists have been convicted. Their cases would legally have to be resolved through withdrawal of charges or amnesty, not pardon. The state is asking innocent people to confess to crimes in order to end detentions that it has no lawful basis to continue. Repeated trial adjournments have pushed the defense hearing for Gobeze Sisay, Meskerem Abera, Genet Asmamaw, and Dawit Begashaw to November 19, 2026, and Abay Zewdu’s next hearing on October 16, 2026. If convicted, they face life imprisonment or the death penalty.
The Abiy Ahmed led OPP regime has spent three years detaining Amhara journalists without trial. Now it is asking those same journalists to sign statements calling their own work terrorism - as the price of their freedom. No government that respects its citizens or the rule of law behaves this way. And no donor nation that funds this regime can pretend it does not know.
The forced-apology campaign does not exist in isolation. It is the courtroom expression of a
broader military campaign in which the full weight of Ethiopia’s security apparatus has been
deployed against the Amhara people with credible reports of attacks on civilians, churches,
monasteries, homes, and schools. Serious allegations of war crimes, sexual violence,
extrajudicial killings, mass arbitrary detention, and forced displacement demand urgent,
independent international investigation. Donor governments cannot continue business as
usual while their financial, military, and diplomatic assistance risks sustaining a regime
credibly accused of turning all its institutions against its own citizens and committing an active
genocide.
FANA’s Call to the International Community
To donor nations — including the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Japan, and multilateral institutions including the World Bank and IMF: Immediately review all aid, security cooperation, military assistance, arms transfers, and intelligence sharing to the OPP regime; condition all future assistance on measurable human rights protections; and publicly demand the release of the named detainees and an end to attacks on Amhara civilians.
To the United Nations, African Union, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights,
and international human rights organizations: Establish an independent international
investigation into alleged war crimes, sexual violence, attacks on religious sites, mass detention, forced displacement, and political persecution targeting Amharas and other
affected communities. Grant unrestricted access to affected regions and detention facilities.
FANA reiterates that forced confession or apology letters cannot erase state violence, silence
victims, or convert political persecution into justice. What they can do — if the world stays
silent – is establish a template: that a government can detain its critics for years, then trade
their freedom for confessions the state itself has drafted. FANA stands with Amhara
journalists, political prisoners, religious communities, and civilians who continue to suffer war
crimes and genocidal violence under the Abiy Ahmed led OPP regime. The international
community must decide, now, whether its resources will advance peace and human dignity –
or continue to enable a regime credibly accused of turning its weapons, courts, and prisons
against its own people.
Federation of Amharas in North America (FANA)
About FANA:
The Federation of Amharas in North America is a non-profit dedicated to human rights advocacy and the protection of vulnerable communities “in Ethiopia, particularly the Amhara community.
Primary source: Committee to Protect Journalists, “In Ethiopia, 5 journalists pressured to win release apologize for terrorism to win release,” August 13,2026 https://cpj.org/2026/08/in-ethiopia-5-journalists-pressured-to-apologize-for-terrorism-to-winrelease/