
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
ADDIS ABABA– After 30 years of sheltering on the premises of the Italian Embassy here in Addis Ababa, two former officials of the People’s Democratic Republic Ethiopia were released on paroles yesterday.
The two officials, Major Berhanu Bayeh and Major Addis Tedla took shelter in Italian Embassy following the downfall of the Derg on May 1991.
Other senior Derg officials who were apprehended by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) were sentenced of capital punishment which was later changed to life imprisonment and were released on amnesty 10 years ago.
Berhanu and Addis were also tried in absentia and were sentenced to death. Deputy Attorney General Fekadu Tsega told journalists that the two officials had been in a condition in which they were deprived of their liberty within the Italian Embassy since May 1991. He added that all their basic needs had been fulfilled by their families.
According to Fekadu they asked the government for amnesty and the Embassy of Italy officially briefed the government on the situation of the officials who were in deprivation of liberty. In addition, Fekadu stated that Reconciliation Commission provided a proposal for the government t for the release of the officials.
Based on the request of the officials and humanitarian considerations, President of the country commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, he stated.
The government after making a rigorous study on how they would be taken out of the shelter and after taking into consideration that they were deprived of their liberty over the last decades, it had requested the Federal High Court for the former officials to be released on parole and the court passed its verdict to their release on paroles.
The Ethiopian Herald December 25/2020