Ethiopian war criminals able to leave the Italian embassy after almost 30 years

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Berhanu Bayeh and Addis Tedla, two senior officials of Mengistu’s former Ethiopian military regime who had been sentenced to death for war crimes, were given parole by an Ethiopian federal court, according to a diplomatic source familiar with the case. situation.
They were sentenced to death in absentia in 2008, along with former Soviet-backed Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, for his involvement in the torture and execution of thousands of people, which led to genocide.
Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde commuted his death sentences to life in prison on 19 December. The federal court voted two to one in favor of giving them parole on Christmas night, after Ethiopian Attorney General Gedion Timothewos asked for clemency because of his old age.

Now the two men are awaiting the official transmission of the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry ruling, at which point they will leave.

Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Emanuela Claudia Del Re thanked Ethiopia for granting parole.

“It definitely turns an old page of history,” he said in a tweet Monday. “Italy and Ethiopia share a long and prosperous future together.”

“Life is a human right: the decision to grant parole to former government officials is in line with human rights obligations and commitments,” said Daniel Bekele, chief commissioner of the Human Rights Commission. ‘Ethiopia, which is defined as‘ independent national ’. institution. “It is also a symbolic indicator of Ethiopia’s commitment to turn the page on one of the saddest chapters in its recent history.”

Mengistu was president of the Derg, a communist party that rose to power in Ethiopia after a coup in 1974. For a time, Bayeh served as Derg’s foreign minister and Tedla was the chief of staff. of defense.

In 1977 and 1978, the Derg committed numerous human rights abuses during what became known as the Red Terror. Several thousand people, mostly university students and young intellectuals suspected of opposing the Derg, died on the streets and prisons of Addis Ababa and other cities in the center of the country, according to Amnesty International.

The same regime was in control during a drought and famine in the 1980s, which caused approximately 800,000 lives.

When the regime fell in 1991 and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front settled in the capital, Bayeh, now 70, and Tedla, who began his 80s, sought refuge in the Italian embassy. in Addis Ababa. Since May 26, 1991, they have been confined to the walls of the compound, the source told CNN.

His 29-year diplomatic asylum stay is considered the longest, lasting 22 years longer than that advertised by Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

At least 600 civilians were killed in the massacre in northern Ethiopia, according to the rights commission
They have never had a lawyer, but have applied for asylum at the embassy, ​​which was never granted. However, the Italian embassy accepted the two men because of the country’s opposition to the death penalty.

They have spent the closed days of the outside world walking through the small grounds of the enclosure and watching television, the diplomatic source said.

Two other men, Tesfay Gebre Kidan and Hailu Yimenu, also took refuge at the embassy in 1991. Yimenu committed suicide a few years later, while Kidan died in an accident in 2004. The source told CNN that they could get more details about Kidan’s death. published in the press, but said it did not involve either Bayeh or Tedla.

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