ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The Ethiopian government has charged 131 opposition politicians, reporters and aid workers with crimes against the country.
They were arrested after protests erupted in November over the May election disputed as corrupt, the BBC reports.
Forty-six people were killed in the November protests.
Those detained are charged with crimes such as treason and genocide and convictions could carry the death penalty.
Officials in the capital of Addis Ababa are rebuking calls for the release of political prisoners, calling the charges serious and requiring the courts to sort it out.
Members of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, two opposition groups that gained support in the May 15 elections, are among those arrested.
