MAYCHEW, Ethiopia — Evangelical church leaders Kiros Meles and Abebayeh Desalegn walked free March 7 after being jailed without charges for 10 months in the northern Ethiopian town of Maychew.
“It is a shame for them to be in prison,” said the magistrate who ordered their release at a March 5 hearing. She found no evidence against the two Pentecostal elders under investigation for alleged murder and ordered the men transferred the same day from prison to the local police station, where they were discharged two days later. “They have been released this morning, and are at their homes, celebrating with all the believers,” a source told Compass Direct news service. Meles, 46, and Desalegn, 35, were arrested after a two-day riot last April led by a mob of Orthodox church extremists. When a young Orthodox man was shot dead during the last day of the rampage, local police accused the two evangelical leaders as suspects. However, the fatal shot came from the local police chief’s gun, and an off-duty policeman was also jailed.
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