Ethiopian officials arbitrarily arrested and detained a Christian evangelist under charges of terrorism and treason, it was reported in June.
Alemayehu Legese was initially arrested in late March in Dodola, 180 miles south of Addis Ababa, by local police, after having admitted to owning literature that ‘discussed the history of Islam from a Christian per-spective’. Legese, a student at Dodola Mekane Yesus Bible School, had dropped the literature off at a copy shop. A Muslim employee subsequently contacted authorities to demand Legese face consequences for vio-lating the widespread cultural belief that Christians, being inferior citizens, are moral-ly insufficient to learn the history of Islam.
Legese was known for his evangelistic nature and it is believed that because of that, as well as the fact that he co-ordinated faith-based activities for youth at his local church, he was made a target for arrest.
