Aigaforum editor to appear in a California court over defamation

By Hilina Dawit
June 4, 2013

Isayas Atsbeha

SAN JOSE, California -- The controversial publisher and editor of Aigaforum.com, widely known among exiled Ethiopians as the “voice of tyranny”, has been sued in the Superior Court of Santa Clara, California, for deliberately spreading politically-motivated defamation and inciting hatred and violence. 

 

The lawsuit against Isayas Atsibeha (aka Isayas Atsibeha Abaye), who is also a CISCO employee in San Jose, California, has been filed by journalist and human rights activist Abebe Gellaw.

Abebe charges that Isayas and his associate have willfully and intentionally distributed a scurrilous defamation, based on total falsehood and fabrication, in the aftermath of his protest against former dictator Meles Zenawi. According to sources, Abebe has also filed a separate lawsuit in Atlanta, Georgia, against the unnamed man that produced and broadcast on radio the alleged fabrication with a view to defaming and violating his constitutionally protected rights. The complaint stressed that the defendants have deliberately resorted to inciting violence, hatred and defamation just because he exercised his First Amendment Rights.

Isayas Abaye works at CISCO in the day and promotes tyranny and repressions in dark hours, activists allege. “Isayas Abaye deserves to be tried in a court of law. He is an interesting character that tries to enjoy the fruits of freedom in America and the full benefits of supremacist tyranny in Ethiopia. He lives in two totally opposite worlds.

“Facing the truth in an American court was long overdue for this man as he been cunningly undermining the struggle for freedom by promoting repression in Ethiopia using illegal defamation, scaremongering, divisiveness and propaganda as a tactic,” said activist Melaku Abera.

Repeatedly accused of promoting the supremacist ideology Ethiopia’s KKK, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Isayas Abaye had even the audacity to spark outrage among Ethiopian-Americans by using the N word against President Obama.

“The misguided extremist Diasporas [sic] have been cheering up for the last couple of days. You know why? Hillary Clinton will not visit Ethiopia during her trip to Africa. Hmm! Who cares if the N**** administration ignores. Ethiopia?! Have your say,” he was widely quoted as posting on his website in August 2010.

Obang Metho, one of Ethiopia’s prominent rights activists, also accused Abaye of racist slurs after he compared him with the former Republican leader Michael Steele as being “selected” for window dressing.
“Despite the intentions of the EPRDF to point fingers at others in order to divide us, we must use this very negative action in a way that will prevent hatred from overcoming our struggle for the dawn of a New Ethiopia,” Obang Metho wrote in response to the racist attack.

Journalist Abebe Gellaw declined to give specific details on his lawsuits but he confirmed that he and the defendants will have their days in court.
“There is no Kangaroo court in America. The jury will hear both sides attentively before passing their judgment. As much as we have constitutionally protected rights to free expression, there is also a serious cost and responsibility for maliciously wronging others. We are denied justice in Ethiopia, but not in America. I truly believe that justice will be served soon enough,” he said.