 An Ethiopian man suspected of torturing and murdering political opponents in the 1970s has been arrested near Atlanta, say United States officials. Kelbessa Negewo fled to the US in 1987 and now faces deportation proceedings. In 2002 in his absence, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple murders by an Ethiopian court. His wife denies charges made against him when he was an official during the deposed dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam's "Red Terror" campaign. "These are all false accusations. He is a good man. He didn't kill anybody," his wife, Athena Negussie, told Reuters news agency shortly after his arrest. In 1993, a US district judge ordered Negewo to pay $1.5m to three women who accused him of torturing them under Ethiopia's Marxist regime between 1977 and 1978. Negewo, who works at an Atlanta hotel has paid only a small amount of the fine, pleading poverty. Tens of thousands of people died during Mengistu's 17-year rule - especially in the late 1970s. Mengistu lives in exile in Zimbabwe. | And feel's right at home. |
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