NEWS IN BRIEF
MARCH 1998
Ethiopian prisoner on hunger strike died in Phoenix
An Ethiopian prisoner who went on a five-month hunger strike to demand a religious diet has died on January 3. Ato Teshome Abate, 39, refused to take his meals in August until he died in a Tucson hospital on January 3. He dropped to 75 Ibs.—half his original weight—before he died.
Teshome said that the prison refused to provide him with food that conform to his Orthodox Christian beliefs.
Teshome Abate was convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for the 1987 slaying of his landlady. He is convicted of shooting her with a pistol four times when she told him he would have to move out of his apartment.
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