[1] Three top editors of the newspaper quietly slipped out of the country, accusing the Ethiopian government of relentless intimidation, harassment and persecution.
On a BBC interview, he staunchly defended the decision of his colleagues to leave the country, claiming that the government's plan to bring charges against the newspaper's top editors made their tasks impossible to carry out.
A lawyer and political theorist by training, Abiye started his media career writing on legal issues of the Eritrean-Ethiopian War (1998–2000) on Ethiopian Reporter, a private weekly newspaper.
In his early writing, he supported the current federal arrangement in Ethiopia but said the power of interpreting the constitution should not be vested upon the upper chamber of parliament.
He mainly blogs about politics now, and often criticizes Ethiopian government of perpetrating human rights abuses and closing spaces of democratic participation.
[5] An Ethiopian judge sentenced Abiye to eight years in prison, citing his role in providing outlawed opposition groups a platform to disseminate anti-government propaganda on his website.
[7] In September 2009, Addis Neger newspaper wrote an editorial believed to be authored by Abiye and his colleague Mesfin Negash that questioned the journalistic value of balance.
In interviews, he expressed his support for Medrek's goal of mid-way solution for Ethiopia and praised the coalition's democratic aspirations.
Abiye was also generally criticized for strong Neo-liberal views in most of his writings and his apparent links with Western policy makers.