A thwarted attempt to hurl a grenade at Ethiopia's reformist new prime minister led to a deadly explosion Saturday at a massive rally in support of sweeping changes in Africa's second most populous country. Nine police officials were arrested, state media reported.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed waves to the crowd at a large rally in his support, in Meskel Square in the capital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Saturday, June 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
Witnesses said a man tried to throw the grenade at the stage as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed waved to the cheering crowd of tens of thousands shortly after he made a strong appeal for unity following months of anti-government protests.
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A thwarted attempt to hurl a grenade at Ethiopia's reformist new prime minister led to a deadly explosion Saturday at a massive rally in support of sweeping changes in Africa's second most populous country. Nine police officials were arrested, state media reported.
Witnesses said a man tried to throw the grenade at the stage as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed waved to the cheering crowd of tens of thousands shortly after he made a strong appeal for unity following months of anti-government protests.
Nine police officials were arrested, including the deputy head of the capital's police commission, state broadcaster ETV reported.
The explosion in packed Meskel Square in Addis Ababa followed weeks of dramatic changes that shocked many in the East African nation after years of anti-government tensions, states of emergency, thousands of arrests and long internet shutdowns.
Informal in a neon green T-shirt, Abiy told the tens of thousands of supporters that change was coming and there was no turning back.
The United States has been among those in the international community expressing support for the dramatic changes in Ethiopia, a key security ally in a turbulent region with neighbors including Somalia and South Sudan. The U.S. Embassy on Saturday said "violence has no place as Ethiopia pursues meaningful political and economic reforms."
Addressing the nation minutes after he was rushed to safety, Abiy called the blast a "well-orchestrated attack" but one that failed. He did not lay blame and said police were investigating. At least one person was killed and 155 people were hurt, nine critically, Health Minister Amir Aman said.
"The prime minister was the target," a rally organizer, Seyoum Teshome, told The Associated Press. "An individual tried to hurl the grenade toward a stage where the prime minister was sitting but was held back by the crowd."
The man with the grenade was wearing a police uniform, witness Abraham Tilahun told the AP. Police officers nearby quickly restrained him, he said. "Then we heard the explosion."
Ethiopians rally in solidarity with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Meskel Square in the capital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Saturday, June 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
Nine police officials were arrested, including the deputy head of the capital's police commission, state broadcaster ETV reported.
AP video from the scene showed bloodstained ground and abandoned shoes while people chanting the prime minister's name fled, some clutching their heads in shock and despair.
The attack was "cheap and unacceptable," the prime minister said, and added: "Love always wins. Killing others is a defeat. To those who tried to divide us, I want to tell you that you have not succeeded."
The ruling party in a statement blamed "desperate anti-peace elements" and vowed to continue with the country's reforms.
Ethiopians rally in solidarity with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose photograph is seen on banner, in Meskel Square in the capital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Saturday, June 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
The explosion in packed Meskel Square in Addis Ababa followed weeks of dramatic changes that shocked many in the East African nation after years of anti-government tensions, states of emergency, thousands of arrests and long internet shutdowns.
The 42-year-old Abiy took office in April and quickly announced the release of tens of thousands of prisoners, the opening of state-owned companies to private investment and the unconditional embrace of a peace deal with rival Eritrea. Websites were unblocked and opposition figures were invited to dinner. Ethiopians said they could hardly keep up with the pace of change.
Saturday's rally began as a show of exuberance, with supporters wearing clothes displaying Abiy's image and carrying signs saying "One Love, One Ethiopia."
In this image made from video, blood is seen on the ground after an explosion at a rally for Ethiopia's new Prime Minister, in Addis Ababa, Saturday, June 23, 2018. (AP Photo)
Informal in a neon green T-shirt, Abiy told the tens of thousands of supporters that change was coming and there was no turning back.
"For the past 100 years hate has done a great deal of damage to us," he said, stressing the need for even more reforms.
After the explosion the state broadcaster quickly cut away from coverage of the rally, which broke up with people singing, chanting and going back to their homes.
"I've never thought this day will come in Ethiopia. I'm very emotional right now," said supporter Mulugeta Sema, who wore a T-shirt with the new leader's image and spoke before the blast. "We should never get back to dictatorship. This is time for change."
In a sign of the new effort at dialogue between bitter rivals after a deadly border war and years of skirmishes, one Eritrean diplomat, ambassador to Japan Estifanos Afeworki, said on Twitter that his country "strongly condemns the attempt to incite violence" in Saturday's attack.
In this image made from video, people fall over in the rush to get away, after an explosion at a rally for Ethiopia's new Prime Minister, in Addis Ababa, Saturday, June 23, 2018. (AP Photo)
The United States has been among those in the international community expressing support for the dramatic changes in Ethiopia, a key security ally in a turbulent region with neighbors including Somalia and South Sudan. The U.S. Embassy on Saturday said "violence has no place as Ethiopia pursues meaningful political and economic reforms."
Not everyone has cheered the changes. Some Ethiopians in the north near the border with Eritrea, one of the world's most reclusive nations, have protested the embrace of the peace deal. And the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, a party in Ethiopia's ruling coalition that has been the dominant force in government for most of the past 27 years, said the announcement on the peace deal had been made before the ruling coalition's congress met to discuss it: "We see this as a flaw."
FILE - In this Wednesday, June 20, 2018 file photo, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, left, greets South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, right, at his office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene, File)
Abiy is the first prime minister from the Oromo ethnic group, the largest in the country, since the ruling party came to power in 1991. Ethiopia's sometimes deadly protests demanding more freedoms began in the Oromia and Amhara regions in late 2015 and spread elsewhere, finally leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn early this year.
Abiy visited the restive regions shortly after taking office and stressed the importance of resolving differences through dialogue instead.
ATLANTA (AP) — As Donald Trump seeks a return to the White House, criminal charges are piling up for the people who tried to help him stay there in 2020 by promoting false theories of voter fraud.
At least five states won in 2020 by President Joe Biden have investigated efforts to install slates of electors who would cast Electoral College votes for Trump despite his loss. Those slates were to be used by Trump allies in the House and Senate to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, which was disrupted by pro-Trump rioters storming the Capitol.
Several of those charged or accused of involvement in election interference across the states are still involved in Republican politics today — including the lawyer overseeing “election integrity” for the Republican National Committee. And Trump, who faces federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia for his efforts to overturn Biden's win, frequently still claims the 2020 election was stolen, a falsehood echoed by many of his supporters.
Here's a look at the sprawling web of allegations, criminal charges and references to people in Trump’s orbit as unindicted co-conspirators.
The former president faces state charges in Georgia and federal charges in Washington over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and has been identified as an unindicted co-conspirator by investigators in Arizona and Michigan.
The Georgia charges came in a sprawling racketeering indictment in Fulton County in August that accused Trump and 18 others of participating in a wide-ranging scheme — that included the Republican elector effort — to illegally try to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
Trump is the only one charged in the federal indictment in Washington, but several close associates are recognizable as unindicted co-conspirators.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing his arguments that he should be immune from prosecution. He has clinched his third straight Republican nomination for president.
Racketeering and conspiracy are among the charges the former New York mayor and Trump-aligned attorney faces in Georgia. In Arizona, the charges against him have not yet been made public.
In Michigan, a state investigator has testified that Giuliani is among several high-profile unindicted co-conspirators in a case against Republicans who signed elector certificates falsely saying Trump had won the state.
He's also an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment in Washington, which cites comments he made at the “Stop the Steal” rally prior to the Capitol riot.
His spokesman, Ted Goodman, said in a statement Thursday that the “continued weaponization of our justice system should concern every American as it does permanent, irrevocable harm to the country.”
Bobb is a lawyer and conservative media personality charged in Arizona. She worked closely with Giuliani as he tried to persuade Arizona lawmakers to block the certification of the election results. She later raised money for a discredited audit of the election results in Maricopa County and covered the spectacle for One America News Network.
As lawyer for Trump, Bobb signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” for classified records had been conducted and that all such documents had been given back to the government before an FBI search revealed dozens of protected documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
She was recently tapped to oversee “election integrity” efforts at the Republican National Committee.
Asked about Bobb's role with the RNC, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung accused Democrats of “weaponization of the legal system.”
A longtime Trump aide, Epshteyn was charged in Arizona, where a grand jury accused him of assisting with the fake electors plan.
He's a lawyer who has been by Trump's side for some of the former president's own court appearances, including Thursday in New York.
Epshteyn was a principal surrogate in the 2016 presidential campaign, making frequent television appearances. He briefly served as a senior White House adviser before becoming an analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Trump's White House chief is charged in the sweeping Georgia racketeering indictment, but not in connection with the Republican elector meeting. Among other things, he participated in a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during which the then-president urged the elections official to help “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
Meadows' charges in Arizona are not publicly known. He was also identified by the Michigan state investigator as an unindicted co-conspirator.
His attorney, George Terwilliger, referred to Wednesday's indictment in Arizona as a “blatantly political and politicized accusation and will be contested and defeated.”
Meadows now works for the Conservative Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that describes his role as leading “strategic initiatives on Capitol Hill, with other partner organizations, and with grassroots activists across the country.”
A former dean of Chapman University’s law school in Southern California, Eastman wrote a memo arguing that Trump could remain in power if then-Vice President Mike Pence overturned the results of the electoral certification during a joint session of Congress using the slates of Republican electors from the battleground states.
The charges against him in Georgia include racketeering and conspiracy, while the Arizona charges have not been made public. He's also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment, which quotes his remarks at the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia and his lawyer Charles Burnham said he's innocent of the charges in Arizona.
Ellis was charged in the Georgia indictment after she appeared with Giuliani at a December 2020 hearing hosted by state Republican lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol during which false allegations of election fraud were made. She pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings after reaching a deal with prosecutors. She wasn't charged in connection with the Republican electors efforts in Georgia.
It wasn't immediately clear whether she had a lawyer in Arizona who could comment on charges she faces there, which have not yet been made public.
A Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide, Roman was charged with several conspiracy counts related to the Republican elector meeting and the filing of the elector certificate in Georgia. He was also charged in Arizona.
Roman has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia. It wasn't immediately clear whether he had a lawyer in Arizona yet.
Chesebro, a lawyer, worked with Republicans in multiple swing states to coordinate and execute the Trump elector plan. He was charged with racketeering and several conspiracy counts in relation to that work in Georgia and in October reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.
Chesebro is an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump's federal election indictment, which says he "assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
He was also named in the Wisconsin civil lawsuit, and when he turned over documents to settle that suit he didn't admit liability but promised never to participate in similar efforts.
A lawyer and unflinching Trump ally, Powell was charged with racketeering and conspiracy charges in Georgia but was not implicated in the elector scheme. The Fulton County indictment accused her of participating in an unauthorized breach of elections equipment in a rural Georgia county elections office. She pleaded guilty in October to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
She's an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election interference case, where prosecutors say she filed a lawsuit in Georgia that amplified false or unsupported claims of election fraud.
Clark was a U.S. Justice Department official who championed Trump’s false claims of election fraud. He was charged in Georgia with racketeering and criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings after he presented colleagues with a draft letter pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session on the election results.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia.
He was also one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the federal election indictment against Trump.
In addition to Arizona, criminal charges have been filed against Republicans who presented themselves as electors in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. Wisconsin Republicans who signed elector certificates reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit, admitting their actions were part of an effort to overturn Biden’s victory. No charges have been filed in Pennsylvania or New Mexico, with the attorney general in the latter saying there’s no avenue for prosecution under state law.
Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
FILE - Mark Meadows speaks with reporters at the White House, Oct. 21, 2020, in Washington. Meadows, chief of staff for former President Donald Trump, was among those indicted Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in an Arizona election interference case. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Washington, Dec. 15, 2023. Guiliani, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, was among those indicted Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in an Arizona election interference case.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Former President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media at Manhattan criminal court in New York, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)
