A Canadian citizen who has been detained in Ethiopia for the past 10 months without being charged is suing the government there and its officials for “violations of international law, assault, battery, false arrest and false imprisonment.”
The statement of claim, which was filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice late last week, names Workineh Gebeyehu, the head of the Ethiopian police, and Taadese Masaret, the head of the prison where Bashir Makhtal is being detained.
The suit claims that Ethiopia “is illegally holding” Makhtal and is “subjecting him to torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment.” According to the statement of claim, Makhtal has been held “incommunicado” for more than nine months, and he has not been charged with any offence. Nor has he been brought before a court of law.
His rights to legal counsel and adequate access to the consular protection of Canada have also been denied, the suit says.
“He has been denied his fundamental rights under international, Ethiopian and Canadian law,” according to the suit.
The suit adds Makhtal was also “subject to frequent interrogations during which he has been subjected to torture and cruel and inhumane treatment. He was also forced to videotape a false confession under the coercion of the Ethiopian authorities. The false confession was broadcast on the television in Ethiopia.”
The suit also alleges that Makhtal’s family, many of whom remain in Ethiopia, have been detained, arrested and subjected to torture and coercion to force them to implicate him.
None of the allegations in the lawsuit has been proven in a court of law.
Officials at the Ethiopian embassy were served yesterday afternoon with the lawsuit, but they were not available for comment.
Makhtal’s lawyer, Lorne Waldman, his cousin, Said Maktal, and Amnesty International held a news conference in Ottawa yesterday detailing the $1.5 million civil suit.
But it is not clear whether the Ontario Superior Court of Justice will hear the case because of the State Immunity Act, which shields sovereign states from liability here. Waldman, however, said he will try to convince the court that because Makhtal is a Canadian citizen and is still being psychologically tortured he should be able to hold Ethiopia accountable in a Canadian court of law.
Makhtal was rendered to Ethiopia in January after being detained for three weeks in Nairobi by Kenyan officials.
According to the lawsuit, Makhtal had been travelling in Somalia, selling used clothes, when the Ethiopian Army invaded that country. He has been held in the Central Investigation Detention Centre in Addis Ababa ever since.
It is believed Makhtal was of interest to the Ethiopian government because of his grandfather’s connection to the Ogaden separatist movement.
But there has been no evidence of Makhtal belonging to that or any of the warring factions in Ethiopia, his family says.
Ethiopia under the incompetent, repressive regime of Woyanne ranks 105th among 108 countries in human development, according to a recent report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Read the full report here.
(SomaliNet) Armed clashes between Somali’s interim government troops along with the Ethiopian forces and local insurgent groups have renewed in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia on Tuesday night, witnesses said.
The latest gun battle broke out around 7:00 pm local time in different locations in the capital where the fighters of the Young Islamic Movement known as ‘Al-Shabab’ launched attacks on the positions of the [Woyanne] allied forces.
The sound of the artillery weapons could be heard and rocked the battle zones and mounted concern on the civilians.
It is not yet clear the casualty on the rival sides as the fighting continues around Bakara market area and on Industrial road exchanging heavy weaponries.
In a statement posted on Islamic website, the Al-Shabab claimed the responsibility for tonight’s attacks on the bases of the allied troops.
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18 Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers among dead in fighting
Los Angeles Times
At least 22 people, including 18 Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers, died since Friday in clashes in Mogadishu, said Ahmed Mohamud Afrah, a spokesman for the military police. At least 20 civilians were wounded, he added. Hostilities between Somali troops and Islamic insurgents have forced almost 90,000 people to flee Mogadishu in the past four months, the United Nations said Thursday.
Fighting in the past week has been the worst in the capital in four months, said Abdullahi Omar Shah-Shah,
a deputy police spokesman.
The following analysis of Dennis Hastert’s congressional service is provided by the Ethiopian American News Service.
Dennis Hastert, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives from Illinois’ 14th district, resigned his seat in Congress effective 11:59 p.m. on Monday, November 26. Hastert is remembered in the Ethiopian community as the individual responsible for blocking H.R. 5680 (The Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006, sponsored by Christopher Smith) from reaching the House floor in 2006 for final action. He is widely regarded as the man who hijacked human rights in Ethiopia. Harper’s Magazine last year reported that “Armey [former House majority leader and DLA Piper lobbyists] twisted the arm of then-House Speaker Denny Hastert to ensure that [H.R. 5680] didn’t come up for a vote.”
Hastert was one of the most anti-human rights lawmakers in modern Congressional history. Prior to his opposition of the Ethiopia human rights bill, Hastert bottled up human rights bills aimed at China, Turkey, Colombia and other countries with massive human rights violations.
Hastert showed his callousness in September, 2005 when he declared that spending federal money to rebuild New Orleans from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina “doesn’t make sense to me. It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed.”
Hastert has been criticized for a number of questionable ethical practices, including a legal effort to quash a subpoena to force him to testify in a criminal case linked to Randy “Duke” Cunnigham, the former San Diego congressman convicted of bribery in 2006. He was also criticized for an appropriation of $356 million for a highway that will speed the development of large tracts of land he owned in Illinois.
Hastert sought campaign contributions from groups and organizations with questionable background. He received multiple contributions from Enron Corporation, which defrauded investors and employees of billions of dollars. He also received thousands of dollars in contributions from clients of lobbyist Jack Abramoff who pled guilty in 2006 to a massive fraud and bribery scheme in Congress.
In September of 2006, it was revealed that Hastert had been aware for over a year that Representative Mark Foley had been soliciting sex from underage congressional pages. Hastert did nothing to stop Foley. Foley continued to engage in sexual harassment of young men working as congressional pages until he was forced to resign.
The Washington Times and a number of republican opinion leaders called for Hastert’s resignation over the Foley sex scandal. The Times editorial stated, “Either he was grossly negligent… or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.”
In the end, Hastert will be most remembered for his ineptitude in maintaining a republican majority in the House, and for his sleazy dealings with fraudsters and conniving and corrupt lobbyists. It is not surprising that Rolling Stone magazine rated him the worst congressman in 2006. He will forever be remembered in the Ethiopian community as the man who hijacked human rights in Ethiopia.
DHUSAMAREB – An Ethiopian Woyanne army convoy came under attack Monday in central Somalia after they were ambushed by suspected rebels, sources said.
The attack sparked with an initial roadside explosion targeting the army convoy as it drove somewhere near the border dividing Hiran and Galgadud regions, according to local sources.
The Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers then engaged in armed combat with the rebels, leading to two deaths on the Ethiopian Woyanne side.
Somali government officials in Mataban, a district in southern Galgadud, said the Ethiopian Woyanne army unit eventually chased away the rebels, but killed two civilians in the crossfire.
The dead civilians, including a young male student, were shot as they ran for cover, witnesses said.
Mataban officials said Ethiopian Woyanne reinforcements were rushing to the area to crackdown on the attackers.
A coalition of Somali rebels have waged near daily attacks targeting government and allied Ethiopian Woyanne security forces since the beginning of this year when the Ethiopian Woyanne army rolled into the capital, Mogadishu.
Most attacks have occurred in Mogadishu, but rebels launched organized guerilla attacks over the past 24 hours in different cities, including Baidoa and Beletwein.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – An Ethiopian immigrant has been charged with capital murder in the stabbing deaths of his father and sister, whose bodies were found near freeways in Fresno and Santa Barbara counties.
Mulushewa Tebedge was charged Monday with two counts of murder and a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. A Los Angeles County District Attorney spokeswoman says prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.
Tebedge is accused of using a knife to kill his father and younger sister. His father’s dismembered body was found last week, stuffed in suitcases and a duffel bag and dumped near Interstate 5 in Fresno County.
Police said his sister’s body was dumped near Highway 101 in Santa Barbara County.
Suspect has a ‘history of mental issues’ LAPD says
By Jean-Paul Renaud, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A South Los Angeles man who allegedly dismembered his father’s body and dumped the pieces beside a freeway near Fresno had a “history of mental issues,” police said Monday.
Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Pat Gannon said Mulushewa Tebedge, 33, used a knife to cut off his father’s arms and head in the family’s apartment last week to better “handle the body.”
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From a Times Staff Writer
November 26, 2007
A 33-year-old man was being held in Los Angeles County Jail on Sunday on suspicion of killing a 73-year-old Los Angeles man and his 33-year-old daughter, whose bodies were found near freeways in Fresno and Santa Barbara counties, police said.
Mulushewa Tebedge was arrested Wednesday after he jumped from a second-story window of a home in the 1200 block of West 39th Street in South Los Angeles and ran from police, officials said.
Police went to the house after hearing from the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department that a body found near Interstate 5 had been traced to the address.
While questioning Tebedge, detectives learned of the second victim, whose body was found off U.S. 101 in Santa Barbara, according to authorities.
The names of the victims were not released, but investigators found evidence linking Tebedge to the deaths, officials said. Investigators believe that the slayings took place in the 39th Street house and the suspect was “somehow related” to the victims, police said.
Tebedge is being held in lieu of $1-million bail and is expected to be arraigned today, Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Karen Smith said.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact LAPD South Bureau homicide detectives at (213) 485-4341.
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By Sontaya Rose, KFSN-TV, www.abc30.com
11/23/07 – A body found in suitcases along Interstate Five in western Fresno County apparently wasn’t the only victim killed and dumped along a highway.
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Caltrans workers discovered a body Tuesday morning off Interstate Five near Kamm Avenue in Fresno County.
Now authorities in southern California tell action news another body was found by investigators along Highway 101 in Santa Barbara County.
Action news reporter Sontaya Rose is in the newsroom with more on the suspect in both murders.
Los Angeles police say the suspect is a relative of the victims. Fresno county coroners say it appears the 76 year old victim was murdered and within 24 hours dumped hundreds of miles away from the crime scene.
Caltrans workers made the first discovery Tuesday morning. A body cut into several pieces and dumped along Interstate Five and Kamm.
“The way it was dissected is a little unusual. It looked like it was done with some skill. It wasn’t just casually done. It was done with some precision,” said Dr. David Hadden, Fresno County Coroner.
That victim has been identified as 76 year old Getahun Reta.
Wednesday investigators with the Los Angeles police department went to Reta’s south LA apartment, where they found a crime scene and a man who didn’t want to talk to police.
“When they knocked on the front door, a suspect jumped out of a second floor window and started to run away but he was chased down and captured,” said Jason Lee, Los Angeles Police Dept.
33 year old Mulushewa Tebedge was arrested for murder after a short chase LA detectives say while interviewing him, they learned about another victim, Reta’s daughter. Her body was dumped in Santa Barbara County.
“He’s in custody that is the good news. But it’s unfortunate its thanksgiving weekend and we have to work on a heinous crime like this.”
Fresno county coroner David Hadden says in past cases, he’s seen bodies dismembered because it makes them easier and more discreet to move.
“If I had to guess this was an expediency to make it fit in the containers which in this case were suitcases. I suspect they wanted it to fit into the suitcases because they could transport the body easily,” said Hadden.
Investigators believe the suspect and victims all lived together in the same apartment.
The 33 year old suspect is in the Los Angeles county jail tonight on two counts of murder. His bail is one million dollars.
