Ethiopian court sentences senior Mengistu regime officials to die

ADDIS ABABA – Two senior officials from Ethiopia’s Soviet-backed communist government have been sentenced to death for atrocities committed during the 1974 to 1991 rule of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, officials said yesterday.

After a marathon 11-year trial, Ethiopia’s Federal High Court found Mengistu’s former security and intelligence chiefs, along with eight other officials, guilty of “inhuman persecution” of dissidents during the so-called “Derg” regime, they said. Colonel Tesfaye Woldeselassie, the ex-security minister, and General Legesse Belayneh, who ran the Central Investigation Department, were sentenced to die by firing squad or hanging, the state-run Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) said.The eight others were given prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life, it said, citing the high court’s verdict issued on Wednesday that contained graphic accounts of torture, abuse and murder of thousands of detainees.The sentences can be appealed.In its ruling, the court said Tesfaye and Legesse “played prominent roles in the inhuman persecution of political dissidents by setting up and coordinating institutions of torture.”At one such facility, known as Bermuda, “victims of excessive torture were wrapped (in) plastic sheeting to protect the torturers from getting splashed with blood or pus of the victims in successive round of tortures,” it said.”Apart from the routine whiplashes and beatings, victims also used to be electrocuted,” it said, citing witness testimony that prisoners were then often covered in a chemically treated cloth that caused temporary blindness.The trial that concluded on Wednesday was one of several proceedings attempting to bring to justice the top leadership, senior officials and lower-ranking cadres of Mengistu’s regime that is blamed for the deaths of more than 100 000 people.Many trials are still ongoing, including that of Mengistu himself, who has lived in exile in Zimbabwe since he and his Derg (committee) regime were ousted in 1991.- Nampa-AFPColonel Tesfaye Woldeselassie, the ex-security minister, and General Legesse Belayneh, who ran the Central Investigation Department, were sentenced to die by firing squad or hanging, the state-run Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) said.The eight others were given prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life, it said, citing the high court’s verdict issued on Wednesday that contained graphic accounts of torture, abuse and murder of thousands of detainees.The sentences can be appealed.In its ruling, the court said Tesfaye and Legesse “played prominent roles in the inhuman persecution of political dissidents by setting up and coordinating institutions of torture.”At one such facility, known as Bermuda, “victims of excessive torture were wrapped (in) plastic sheeting to protect the torturers from getting splashed with blood or pus of the victims in successive round of tortures,” it said.”Apart from the routine whiplashes and beatings, victims also used to be electrocuted,” it said, citing witness testimony that prisoners were then often covered in a chemically treated cloth that caused temporary blindness.The trial that concluded on Wednesday was one of several proceedings attempting to bring to justice the top leadership, senior officials and lower-ranking cadres of Mengistu’s regime that is blamed for the deaths of more than 100 000 people.Many trials are still ongoing, including that of Mengistu himself, who has lived in exile in Zimbabwe since he and his Derg (committee) regime were ousted in 1991.- Nampa-AFP