Last week well-respected journalist Mairagu Bezebi was
charged with inciting, urging and supporting the killing of 389 people, while he
was editor-in-chief of the state owned Addis Zemen newspaper.
The
prosecuting team alleges that Mr Mairagu - who is now in his 60s - was a
co-offender of five separate acts of killings in Addis Ababa and the nearby town
of Debre Zeit.
Tens of thousands of Ethiopians were tortured, murdered or
just "disappeared" during Mengistu's reign in the 1970s and 1980s, and the
process of rounding up the perpetrators of the crime is a lengthy one.
The special prosecutors office (SPO) has already charged thousands with
crimes against humanity.
Editorial link
Although the
charges against Mr Mairagu do not state how he supported the killings, many
believe it may be linked to editorials he wrote in the state newspaper he worked
for.
His lawyer, Mr Mengistu Ara-ya believes that if this is the case,
then this is completely unfair as he wrote what he was told to by the Mengistu
regime.
"We were in a socialist order, there was nothing that anyone on
his own could do without the instruction or the overseeing of government
officials, "Mr Megistu said.
Counter revolutionary
And if
anyone disobeyed, he added, there was a danger they would be labelled as
"counter revolutionaries".
"They could be killed, they could arrested,
they could lose their jobs and they would not be able to work
anywhere."
Many believe Mr Mairagu's groundbreaking case could pave the
way for the arrest of other senior journalists who worked for the state media at
the peak of the "Red Terror" campaign.
Mr Mairagu's hearing has been
adjourned until April and many will wait in anticipation to learn whether the
special prosecutor's office really can link this journalist's writings with the
brutal killing of hundreds of people.