Demand the Ethiopian government free the good Swedish heart doctor, Dr Fikru Maru, immediately!

Dr Fikru Maru is a 66-year-old Ethiopian-born Swedish heart doctor. In the 1970s he fled the communist regime that recently had overthrown and murdered Emperor Haile Selassie I. He went to medical school in Sweden and became a cardiologist.

For 40 years, he practiced as one of Sweden's top cardiologists (heart doctors).

In 2007, he helped establish, and was CEO of, a heart hospital in Ethiopia, his country of birth. He wanted to help bring high quality medical care for people with heart problems to Ethiopia.

Then, in 2010, his nightmare with Ethiopia's appalling and flawed legal system began, when he was arrested while trying to bring essential medical supplies, needed for the new heart hospital, through Addis Ababa's airport.

A year later, the charges were dropped, but in 2013 he was re-arrested on what appears to be a politically motivated charge relating to the previous one. With delay after delay after delay of his court hearings, and after three years in prison without being convicted of any crime, he was finally convicted and given a 4 year 8 month jail sentence in one of Ethiopia's crowded, disease-infested prisons.

Then, after four years in prison, in May, 2017, in a new court hearing, he was cleared of all prior charges! That means he spent four years suffering in prison for committing no crime!

However, instead of releasing him from prison, the Ethiopian government has now brought new charges against Dr Fikru, accusing him, along with 37 other prisoners, of being involved in a prison fire and revolt, even though he was in hospital with a life-threatening condition when the fire occurred.

Please watch the following video to see how Dr Fikru, whose health is failing, barely gets the chance to hug his daughter. But be prepared to weep:

https://www.facebook.com/579673202125332/videos/vb.579673202125332/1083455248413789/?type=2&theater

The current oppressive Marxist-Leninist-inspired Ethiopian government has a long history of delaying court cases and charging individuals with non-existent and trumped-up crimes.

There is no due legal process in Ethiopia, because the judiciary is controlled by the ruling political party and its allies, which won every parliamentary seat (547/547) in the last (2015) election, through harassment, banning, jailing and killing opposition party members.

Enough is enough with the unconstitutional and politically motivated torture and treatment of prisoners in Ethiopia! Thousands of individuals have been jailed, tortured and killed by the regime, especially those, incuding opposition political party leaders, who are opposed to its political ideology.

The international community and all good people — medical and otherwise — must speak out for Dr Fikru, and against these atrocities, and hold the Ethiopian government to account.

Please sign the petition, be his voice, and express your horror at the plight of Dr Fikru Maru. Demand that the Ethiopian government release, without delay, this humanitarian cardiologist, and allow him to return to his family in Sweden. Please also see:

                  http://www.freefikru.com/

https://drfrankashall.wordpress.com/2017/06/29/who-is-cardiologist-dr-fikru-maru-jailed-in-one-of-ethiopia-appalling-prisons/