Elias Kifle

Who is Elias Kifle?

Elias Kifle is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Washington D.C.-based Ethiopian Review, an English/Amharic language Ethiopian news and opinion journal that was launched in January 1991.

Kifle is known as one of the most vocal critics of the current government in Ethiopia. Kifle is also a member of Tegbar and has organized rallies and meetings around the world to protest the policies of the ruling party, the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front.

In 2007, Kifle, along with a few other Ethiopian journal editors, has been charged in absentia of treason by Ethiopia's regime and sentenced to life in prison. According to government sources, an extradition request has been filed with the U.S. Government.

In December 2010 Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi initiated a claim in the English High Court against Elias Kifle claiming damages for libel. In July 2011 Kifle, who ignored the lawsuit claiming that it is a case of libel tourism, was ordered to pay £175,000 in damages for publishing 'false' information.

Ethiopian Review is blocked by the regime in Ethiopia from being accessed online in Ethiopia.