Saturday, December 26, 2020

Ethiopia pardoned two men that had been sheltering in the Italian embassy since 1991

Vice from 2015:

It's been nearly 25 years since Ethiopia's Soviet-backed Derg regime was ousted. As a coalition of rebel forces approached capital city Addis Ababa on May 27, 1991, four senior ministers — accused of ordering mass killings — used the darkness of night to creep into the Italian embassy.

...

Fifteen years into their stay, the remaining two men were reportedly sentenced to death for their role in the killings. In 2011, 23 death sentences for former Derg officials were commuted to life imprisonment. However, the men in the embassy — now in their 70s — remain in self-imposed incarceration, but otherwise unpunished.

...

As many as 500,000 were killed during the Red Terror period between 1977 and 1978, according to estimates by Amnesty International.

This week:

Two senior officials of Ethiopia’s former military regime who were being sheltered for 29 years in the Italian embassy in the capital Addis Ababa were paroled Thursday in the longest diplomatic asylum saga in history.