Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa freed

Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa has been freed from jail.
 

Her release comes four months after the government's landslide win in elections.

She was one of several opposition leaders imprisoned for life after the 2005 poll. They were later pardoned, but Ms Birtukan was rearrested for violating the terms of her release.

"I am very relieved," she told the BBC at her home in the capital, where crowds had gathered to welcome her.

Ms Birtukan said she had been freed because she had applied for a pardon.
"Prison by itself is a very horrible place, especially for me the time I spent alone," she said.

"Now I am free, I am back to my family and my daughter, I am very elated."

The BBC's Uduak Amimo in Addis Ababa says hundreds of her supporters began cheering and singing when they she arrived home in a car accompanied by her mother and young daughter.

Ms Birtukan is a former judge and was one of the younger and more charismatic leaders of the coalition that did well against the ruling party in the 2005 elections.

Meles Zenawi was sworn in for his fourth five-year term as prime minister on Monday, following his party's overwhelming victory in May.

But European Union and US observers said the polls fell short of international standards.
 

Source:BBC