CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (AP) – An Ethiopian court has extended the three-month detention without charges of journalist Amir Aman Kiyaro to give police 11 more days to interview witnesses, saying after that the state must formally charge him or release him.
Kiyaro, a freelance journalist accredited to The Associated Press (AP), has been in detention since November.
The next court date for Kiyaro’s case was set for March 29.
“The Associated Press is dismayed by the court’s decision today to continue to detain Amir Aman Kiyaro. He continues to be held without charges,” AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said.
“We urge the Ethiopian government to release Amir immediately and end his unjust detention,” Pace said.
The video journalist was detained on November 28 in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, under the country’s war-related state of emergency powers.
The state of emergency was lifted in February as the government cited changing conditions in the deadly conflict between Ethiopian forces and those of the northern Tigray region.
State media, citing federal police, have said he is accused of “serving the purposes” of what they called a terrorist group by interviewing its officials.
