ETHIOPIA/ FILE: Former Ethiopian president Mengistu, now in exile in Zimbabwe, sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia.

After a 12-year trial, former Colonel Mengistu was found guilty in absentia last month of killing thousands of people during a 17-year reign which began with ousting Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and included war, brutal purges and famine. An Ethiopian court spared former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam from the death penalty on Thursday (January 11) sentencing him to life in prison for genocide, but exiled in Zimbabwe it is unlikely he will ever serve time. Mengistu, now nearing 70, lives a lavishly reclusive life in Zimbabwe where the government says it will not extradite him. Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe in 1991 after he was toppled by guerrillas led by now Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. He was tried in absentia in Addis Ababa with 73 others, including former Prime Minister Fikre Selassie Wogderesse and former Vice-President Fissiha Desta. All were found guilty, except for one in the trial that begun in 1994. Fourteen of the accused have died since proceedings began in 1992, while 25, including Mengistu, are in exile. The grey-haired, mainly former military officers were seen smiling when the sentenced was passed. In the 1977-78 "Red Terror" campaign, the most notorious of Mengistu's purges, suspected opponents were executed by garrotting or shooting. Bodies were tossed into the streets. Mulugeta Asrat, whose father was a top official killed by Mengistu's junta, the Derg, criticised the sentence. "As a Christian, I forgive, but as an Ethiopian and a victim of the Derg's nightmarish rule, I will never forget it," he said. Mengistu's most prominent alleged victim was Emperor Haile Selassie, said to have been strangled in bed and secretly buried under a latrine in his palace. According to the Ethiopian court ruling, Mengistu's government directly killed more than 2,000 people, including 60 top officials, ministers and royal family members executed by firing squad. About 2,400 people were tortured, the court said.

ITN Source | January 11, 2007

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