Two Ethiopian journalists were sentenced to 14 years in prison on Thursday, while a third was sentenced to life in prison. A fourth journalist was told he must defend himself against various terrorism charges on Monday, and could face the death penalty if convicted.*

Reyot Alemu of Feteh newspaper and Wubshet Taye of the now-defunct Awramba Times were sentenced to 14 years in prison, while U.S. resident Elias Kifle of the Ethiopian Review, who was tried in absentia, received life in prison.

Their sentencing came just days after a fourth journalist, Eskinder Nega, was told that the prosecution indeed has a case against him, and that he must defend himself against terrorism charges*. Nega left the courtroom on Monday yelling, “I’m innocent,” AP reported. He now faces the death penalty.

“We urge the Ethiopian authorities to overturn these latest sentences and release all of the journalists currently in jail because of their work,” said IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills. “The surge in journalist prosecutions appears designed to cow the free media into submission.”

Two opposition members were also handed 17 and 19 years in prison during the same trial, news reports said.

Ethiopian journalists critical of the ruling party have told IPI they believe that the use of terrorism charges against journalists and opposition members is meant to pre-empt any Arab Spring-style challenge to the party’s more-than-20-year rule.

The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won a landslide re-election in 2010, but observers said the vote was neither free nor fair – not least because Ethiopians who do not join the party are excluded from the civil service and even state benefits, including humanitarian assistance and food aid, reports said.

Alemu, Taye and Kifle were convicted last week of conspiring to commit terrorist acts and of participating in a terrorist organisation. But according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, most of the evidence against the journalists was based on their online writings, critical articles that they received, and for calling for peaceful protest.

In addition to the prison terms, Taye was fined 33,000 birr (approx. 1,500 Euros) and Alemu was fined 36,000 birr (approx. 1,600 Euros), according to The Reporter. Alemu plans to appeal against her conviction, AP reported.

Kifle, an exiled journalist and political activist who edits anti-government website the Ethiopian Review, was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. This is Kifle’s third conviction since he left the country; he had previously been sentenced to life in prison and to death, he told IPI in an email sent shortly after his conviction last week.

According to Kifle, the print version of the Ethiopian Review has been banned in the country since 1995, while website EthiopianReview.com has been blocked since 2007.

Kifle does not plan to appeal his conviction, because he does not consider the trial legitimate – and in any case never received any official notice that charges had been brought against him, he told IPI.

“The conviction is a joke,” he wrote. “No one takes it seriously. Meles Zenawi’s regime conducts such sham trials to terrorize the people of Ethiopia into submission.”

Last month, Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson were sentenced to 11 years in prison for “rendering support to terrorists”. They were arrested last July while filming a story about the activities of armed insurgents in an ethnically Somali region of Ethiopia. Schibbye and Persson strenuously denied any objective other than journalism, but have subsequently decided to accept their conviction in the hopes that they will receive a pardon.

Kifle believes that they could be freed, but noted that “their arrest and conviction is having a chilling effect on foreign correspondents who might plan to travel to Ethiopia”.

*CORRECTION, 2 Feb 2012: This article erroneously stated that Eskinder Nega had been convicted of terrorism charges and was awaiting sentencing. According to a lawyer who observed the trial, the decision was only that his case will go to trial and that Nega must defend himself against the terrorism charges.