BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ
dailypress.com
Yacob Hailemariam will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Studio for the Healing Arts on Colley Ave. in Norfolk about human rights in Ethiopia and democracy there.
The event, put on by the Tidewater Peace Alliance and Amnesty International Hampton Roads Group 633, is part of the 3rd annual Light in the Dark: Festival for Peace.
Yacob was a business law professor for 20 years at Norfolk State University and has worked for the United Nations as a senior legal advisor in West Africa and a senior prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, according to an event press release.
In 2004, Yacob, an Ethiopian, returned to his home East African country to run for parliament.
“During the campaign he became a very popular public figure and was chosen to chair the international relations committee of the leading opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy,” according to his biography. “He was elected to parliament by an overwhelming majority on May 15, 2005.”
The current administration, led by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi declared victory in the election, however.
Mass protests erupted and hundreds of people were killed.
Yacob was arrested on Oct. 31, 2005 and charged with treason, inciting violence, and genocide. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Yacob was released in July and reunited with his family in Hampton Roads in October.