Africa News
Court sentences leading Derg member to death on genocide charges
By DPA
Dec 9, 2005, 19:00 GMT

Addis Ababa - The Federal High Court in Addis Ababa has sentenced to death the former Derg member, Major Melaku Tefera, on a series of charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, the official Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported Friday.

Tefera is charged with involvement in the deaths of 971 people and the physical injury of 83 others.

The Federal High Court found the defendant guilty and sentenced him to death for the crimes committed while he served as governor of Gondar Province in northwestern Ethiopia from 1977-1983.

Melaku has appealed against the sentence, which under Ethiopian law cannot be carried out until it is approved by the country\'s head of state.

Most of the deaths attributed to Melaku occurred during the so- called Red Terror Campaign during a three-year period from early 1977 to 1979, when real or imagined enemies of the Ethiopian Revolution were summarily executed.

The repressive Derg regime was led by Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam, who has been in exile in Harare, Zimbabwe, since the demise of his government in May 1991.

The trial of over 40 other top officials of the Derg, the military council that overthrew the late Emperor Haile Selassie in September 1974 in a bloodless coup, is expected to wind up early in 2006.