According to OSG Press Release DEC 2010 - Tesfahun Chemeda and Mesfin Abebe were mandate holding refugees who had been in Kenya since 2005. They had moved address because they had been followed by Ethiopian government spies. The two men were picked up in a restaurant by Kenyan anti-terrorist police on 27 April 2007 and taken to Kamukunji police station, where they were held overnight before being transferred to Giriri police station. Staff from the UNHCR Protection Unit and members of the FBI visited them and reassured them they would not be deported. They kept in touch with a community member and expressed relief at being told by the FBI agents that the Ethiopian government would not be informed about them. The Oromo community instituted habeas corpus proceedings and a court ordered that the Attorney General and Police Commissioner should produce them in court. On 9 May 2007, a senior Nairobi police official and a Kenyan government official told a court that they had already been sent back to Ethiopia to face terrorism charges. They produced a Laissez Passer from the Ethiopian embassy, dated 1 May, which had obviously been backdated as that day was a public holiday. The detainees remained in touch by telephone from within Kenyan custody until at least 11 May, two days after the court hearing. The Kenyan Human Rights Commission, RCK and UNHCR were unable to prevent the refoulement. Tesfahun and Mesfin disappeared in Ethiopian custody until their names appeared on a charge sheet in December 2008. They were convicted on terrorism charges at the end of March 2010. Mesfin Abebe was sentenced to death and Tesfahun Chemeda to life imprisonment. Nairobi 2008
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 23:22:21 +0000