Ethiopian court sentences Mengistu to death

26 May, 2008

ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia's supreme court on Monday sentenced former Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam to death, granting a prosecution appeal that a life sentence he received last year did not match the seriousness of his crimes.

Mengistu, who has lived a life of comfortable exile in Zimbabwe since he was driven from power in 1991, is unlikely to face punishment unless Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe loses a run-off election next month and cedes power.

"Considering the prosecution's appeal that a life sentence was not commensurate to the crimes committed by the Mengistu regime, the court decided to sentence him to death," the court said in its ruling.

The prosecution in July appealed against a life term imposed on Mengistu in January 2007, after he was found guilty of genocide arising from thousands of killings during his 17-year rule that included famine, war and the "Red Terror" purges of suspected opponents.

He and more than a dozen other senior officers were found guilty after a 12-year trial that concluded Mengistu's government was directly responsible for the deaths of 2,000 people and the torture of at least 2,400.

Witnesses had told the court that family members who went to collect the bodies of their loved ones were asked to pay for the bullets that killed them, and evidence included torture videos.

Mengistu seized power in the aftermath of the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, when the country was ruled by a military junta known as the Derg.

His government's brutality was exemplified by the Red Terror purges of 1977-78, in which at least 1,200 suspected political opponents were murdered and their bodies dumped in the streets as a warning to others.

"Crimes committed by Mengistu and his co-defendants by killing an emperor and burying him under a toilet is unheard of in the annals of human history," the court ruling said.

Eighteen co-defendants were also sentenced to death, and one, Lieutenant Akililou Belae, received a life term.

The sentence will be carried out after it is approved by the head of state.

The court also ordered police to arrest two of those convicted, former Foreign Minister Berhanu Baye and the former head of the armed forces, Addis Tedla, who it said were hiding in the Italian embassy in the Ethiopian capital.

Italian embassy officials were unavailable to comment.

Zimbabwe has refused to extradite Mengistu since he fled there in 1991 when rebels led by current Prime Minister Meles Zenawi overthrew his government and seized the capital.

If Mugabe loses next month's run-off election to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Mengistu could be extradited.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change said in 2006 it would withdraw the protection afforded by Mugabe's government, which considers Mengistu a friend of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle.

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