Opposition leader denies Ethiopian 'plot'
Berhanu, 51, currently a university professor in
the United States, was elected mayor of Addis
Ababa in the polls
07 May, 2009
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – A prominent Ethiopian opposition leader accused by the regime of masterminding a plot to assassinate top officials on Thursday rejected the charges as fabricated.
"They have fabricated the story, as they always do. First they said (it was) a coup, then assassination attempts. They are so used in lying," Berhanu Nega told AFP in a telephone interview from his exile base in the United States.
Ethiopian authorities last week said they had unearthed a plot by senior ex-military officers aligned to the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) headed by Nega to kill top government officials and attack key utility infrastructures.
"It is a set-up. Whenever they panic that is what they do," he said adding the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi lacked popular support and "can only govern through crises it creates".
Communications Minister Bereket Simon last week said the plotters, among them a former army general, belonged to the Ginbot 7 (May 15) opposition group, which he claimed was linked to the CUD.
Forty people have been arrested in connection with the alleged plot and 35 appeared in court for the first time on April 27.
The government believed that the "desperado" group was not planning to stage a coup, but intended "assassinating individuals, high-ranking government officials and destroying some public facilities and utilities" such as telecom services and electricity utilities.
The CUD won an unprecedented number of seats in the 2005 elections, which the European Union and other observers said fell short of international standards.
Around 200 people died in violence that erupted after the CUD accused Zenawi's party of rigging the ballot.
Berhanu, 51, currently a university professor in the United States, was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in the polls. He was subsequently jailed for two years along with other leaders of the CUD, and left the country after his release.