Foreigner held in US under Intelligence Act
Publish date: 12 January 2005
Issue Number: 1252
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Human rights
A 54-year-old Ethiopian man has become the first person to be arrested for alleged human rights violations under the US recently passed Intelligence Reform Act.
Kelbessa Negewo is facing charges of committing numerous acts of murder and torture in his native country, reports The Washington Times. The law gives the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency expanded authority to pursue investigations and remove suspected human rights violators living in the US. ICE agent Kenneth Smith said Negewo was responsible for having numerous civilians, mostly students, incarcerated, tortured and executed by firing squad under the military dictatorship led by Mengistu Haile Mariam during the 1970s. Negewo\'s actions were so severe, he said, that the Ethiopian dictatorship eventually jailed him. On his release from Ethiopian prison, Negewo fled to the US and eventually became a US citizen. His citizenship was revoked in October when it was discovered he had made false statements about his past human rights violations. In April 2002, the Ethiopian government convicted Negewo in absentia for numerous human rights violations. Full report in The Washington Times