The Ethiopian government is to release Ethiopian-born Swedish heart surgeon Fikru Maru who has been in prison since 2013 and several political detainees from prison.
The county’s attorney general on Friday dropped charges against Dr. Fikru Maru and other 61 individuals, 26 of them charged with participating in an attempt to break out of Kilinto prison in September 2016 that resulted in a huge fire and the death of 30 prisoners.On May 9, the federal high court has thrown out terrorism charges against Fikru, a ruling which has been hailed as a “progress,” by his lawyer, Hans Bagner. The lawyer was then quoted by Swedish media as saying he hoped that it was one step closer to his release. Talks have been underway between Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Margot Wallstrom and her Ethiopian counterpart.
Fikru was first imprisoned on charges of corruption, though on May 2017, Justices of the Supreme Court have ruled acquitting Fikru, overruling the corruption conviction given which sentenced him to four years and eight months. An appeal lodged by Fikru pleading reversal of the ruling rendered by judges at the Federal High Court has culminated in exonerated him from charges after he has served four years of his jail term. The Justices ruled then the defendant was free from charges brought against him by prosecutors from the Federal Ethics & Anti-Corruption Commission. He remained in jail as a suspect in the Kilinto Prison fire, though he was not in prison during the escape attempt. He was in a hospital.
Fikru went to medical school in Sweden and he built a career as an interventional cardiologist. He founded the Addis Cardiac Hospital in 2006, with the hope of providing care that wasn’t available anywhere in Ethiopia. Dr Fikru implanted pacemakers and performed PCIs for patients who would otherwise have had to go abroad for treatment.