Mr. Speaker, my petition calls for the release of Ms. Birtukan Mideksa from arbitrary imprisonment. Ms. Mideksa is president of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party of Ethiopia and has been held by the government since December 2008 without charge, on a politically motivated life sentence.
According to Amnesty International, she is a prisoner of conscience. She has been pardoned of all charges against her but has been arrested again for no reason. She has had no formal hearings and has been given no access to her lawyer.
Human rights organizations have been denied access and also her family contacts have been severely limited. She has been held in solitary confinement in life-threatening conditions.
The petitioners call on the House of Commons to pass private member's motion M-334, which requests that the government make use of every means at its disposal in addition to working with all allies in the international community and the United Nations to exert maximum pressure on the government of Ethiopia to immediately and unconditionally release Ms. Mideksa and allow her to participate fully in her position as leader of a political party.