JIJIGA, Ethiopia — Prosecutors and police are trying to concoct a terrorism case against an Ethiopian convert from Islam who has been jailed since May without formal charges, Christian leaders said.
Bashir Musa Ahmed, a 39-year-old Ethiopian national, was arrested May 23 when police found him in possession of eight Bibles in Jijiga, the capital of Ethiopia’s Somali Region Zone Five — a predominantly Muslim area in eastern Ethiopia. Zonal police arrested him after he was accused of providing Muslims with Somali-language Bibles, sources said, though Ethiopia’s constitution protects such activity.
A state official joined Christian leaders in stating that Islamist interests have kept Ahmed in jail in spite of the state’s failure to find any legitimate charge against him. Initially the Christian was arrested for “malicious” distribution of a version of the Bible that is widely available in Ethiopia and is commonly used by Somali Christians inside and outside the country. Police have submitted the terrorism charge to prosecutors, prompting the prosecutors in January to ask police to find some evidence for the accusation, according to a church leader.
“Police have submitted their investigation results to the prosecutor’s office, accusing Bashir of terrorism,” said the church leader. “We heard that the prosecutors asked police to solidify their accusations with evidences of Bashir’s connections [to a terrorist group and to specify] which terrorist group. Prosecutors seem to feel they need to have some evidence to charge him with terrorism.”
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