� Jawar Mohammed is an Ethiopian-born American politician, political analyst and activist. He was educated in universities in the United States, where he started his political analysis and activism on Ethiopia. The objective of his activism has always been to bring justice, fair and equitable politico-economic system, democracy and equal recognition among the diverse society of Ethiopia. To that effect, he delinquently worked to organize and empower the different sectors and ethnic groups of the Ethiopian population so that they can fight for their rights. Jawar Mohamed himself hails from the Oromo, one of the many ethnic groups in Ethiopia that have been politically marginalized for years and, as a result, have been fighting for justice and democracy. Therefore, he joined the fight for democracy with fresh energy and vigor and introduced anew and powerful methods of struggle that was based totally on peaceful mass movement by the Oromo people. He largely used the power of the media (both traditional and social media) in his activism. In collaboration with other Oromo intellectuals in the diasporas, he also founded the Oromia Media Network (OMN), a satellite TV service. Specially, since 2014, he played key leadership role in organizing and leading the Oromo Youth Movement for Freedom (also called the Qeerroo movement) that shock the repressive regime in Ethiopia. The Oromo Qeerroo movement, that later got support from other youth groups forced the government and the ruling party to open for change that brought a new Prime Minister to power. The new Prime Minster was hoped to lead the political change and transition the country peacefully to democracy.    

Following the change in 2018, Jawar Mohamed moved back to Ethiopia and the OMN media was also relocated in Ethiopia. However, the much expected political reform under new Prime Minister in Ethiopia has not gone well as many people hoped. Although the Prime Minister initially promised a lot and started to some how widen the political space for opposition, all of those efforts stacked or were reversed within short time. At that point, Jawar Mohamed again reemerged the major challenger for the government. He pushed for democratization as promised. He became a voice for millions of voiceless Ethiopians. He also allowed air times on the OMN TV for many ethnic groups that would not otherwise get opportunity to broadcast in their own languages. OMN has been the most multilingualmedia in Ethiopia. Jawar Mohamed is seen as a voice for the voiceless and staunch advocate for democracy and equality among the diverse society of Ethiopia. Because of this the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has become increasingly hostile to him. Additionally, Jawar Mohamed also had opponents from some sector of Ethiopians, who want to take the country back and do not recognize diversity among the Ethiopian people. This group has been disseminating false accusations and demanding his detention or death.  

About a month ago, the government and the legislature decided to unconstitutionally stay in office beyond their term of office that will end on September 30, 2020. Jawar Mohamed was one of the strong critics of that move. The government took that step mainly because it lost confidence to win an election. Therefore, it was expected that the regime that has been fast evolving into autocracy would eliminate key challengers like Jawar Mohamed from political space. It was just about time but sure.

On June 29, 2020 we learnt of the tragic political assassination of  Hachalu Hundessa, a very admired and loved Oromo singer and activist in Addis Ababa. While we don’t know much detail about that tragedy, the government immediately used that incident to collect its major opponents and critics and put them in jail. Jawar Mohamed, Bekele Gerba and many other opposition figures were detained. We believe Jawar Mohamed was targeted simply because the government wanted to avoid its opponents and critics. Jawar Mohamed is simply a political prisoner. Therefore, we demand Jawar Mohamed to be freed.  
 

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Jawar Mohammed is not a criminal