ADDIS ABABA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- An Ethiopian court on Friday convicted 16 people for committing and involving in terror acts on behalf of the Patriotic Front Ginbot-7 rebel group.
According to the verdict by the federal high court of Ethiopia, the 16 convicted individuals were found to have been working for the outlawed armed group between 2012 and 2015 in Ethiopia's second largest Amhara regional state.
The 16 were found guilty of recruiting members and disseminating categorized security information for the rebel group. Based in Ethiopia's neighbor Eritrea, Ginbot-7 has been outlawed by the Ethiopian government.
The court sentenced four of the defendants to 4 years and 6 months of imprisonment and passed 4 years and 2 months of imprisonment on three others, while nine others were freed from the case for reasons attributed to their family condition and their previous criminal status.
Ethiopia's Amhara region was in a state of unrest for most of the second half of 2016 for reasons including a rumored disgruntlement of reallocation of a district to neighboring region. The region has been a major target by Ginbot-7 in its member recruiting efforts over the years.
Ethiopia and Eritrea have been locked in a state of uneasy armed standoff with each side blaming the other for supporting rebel groups as proxies.
