BY TAJUDIN
London ( DIPLOMAT.SO) โ The family of a north London man who is facing the death penalty in Ethiopia has said the government should be doing more to help get him home.
Andy Tsege, from Islington, who opposes the Ethiopian authorities, was seized in June and has been in solitary confinement ever since, his family says.
The UK Foreign Office says he is not being held โillegallyโ.
The international community expressed feelings of deep frustration because of the deterioration of human rights situation and freedom of expression in Ethiopia.
The Prime Minister has personally intervened in the case of a British father-of-three facing the death sentence in Ethiopia, after the manโs children appealed for his help.
David Cameron wrote to the Ethiopian Prime Minister in a bid to save the life of Andargachew โAndyโ Tsege, 59, whose plight was revealed by The Independent Newspaper .His actions were in response to what he described as โvery touching messagesโ from Mr Tsegeโs children, who are calling for the Prime Minister to help get their father home.
Mr Tsege, who came to Britain as a political refugee in 1979, was arrested at an airport in Yemen in June and promptly vanished. Two weeks later it emerged he had been sent to Ethiopia, where he has been imprisoned ever since. The Briton, a prominent opponent of the Ethiopian regime, is facing a death sentence imposed five years ago at a trial held in his absence.
Britain axes aid to Ethiopian police amid human rights outcry
Britain has suspended most of a ยฃ27 million aid programme to support Ethiopiaโs police force, The Telegraph has learnt, amid mounting allegations of torture, rape and murder by the regime.
Ministers pulled the plug on a scheme intended to improve criminal investigations, help Ethiopian police โinteract with communities on local safetyโ and help women access the justice system.
The cancellation coincides with an Amnesty International report that documents how the Ethiopian security forces have conducted a campaign of torture, mutilation, rape and murder in order to suppress political opposition.
Britain has given ยฃ1 billion in aid, including around ยฃ70 million for โgovernance and securityโ projects, to the country over three years. Critics of the ruling regime have disappeared, and Amnesty International found allegations of men being blinded and women being gang raped and burnt with hot coals by regime officials.
There are mounting fears for the safety of Andy Tsege, a British national and critic of the regime, who was abducted in Yemen before being tortured and sentenced to death.
