Ethiopian national suspected of torture in homeland arrested in Atlanta

<p>An Ethiopian man suspected of torturing and murdering dissidents while serving as a leader in a military dictatorship in Ethiopia during the 1970s was arrested Tuesday by federal agents.</p><p>Kelbessa Negewo, 54, remains in federal custody and will face a hearing before an immigration judge as part of deportation proceedings in the next several weeks, said Ken Smith, special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's office of investigation, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.</p><p>Officials allege that during the 1970s Negewo was part of a military dictatorship that ruled Ethiopia. They say that in his role as chairman of a special government unit, he was responsible for having numerous civilians _ mostly students _ incarcerated, tortured and executed by firing squad.</p><p>Negewo was arrested in the Atlanta suburb of Union City, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.</p><p>Negewo renounced his U.S. citizenship in October after the government moved to strip him of it, Smith said. That opened the door for Negewo's arrest and the deportation proceedings. His rights as a U.S. citizen had made it more difficult to return him to Ethiopia, Smith said.</p><p>No federal charges are planned against him aside from plans to deport him, Smith said.</p><p>Once he is back in Ethiopia, he faces life in prison, which he was sentenced to following his conviction in absentia in April 2002. The Ethiopian government convicted Negewo for numerous human rights violations, including torture and 13 killings. His sentence has not been enforced until now because he was living in the United States. He was also the target of a civil case in the early 1990s.</p><p>Negewo's wife, Athana Negussie, said she and her husband were sleeping when federal agents knocked on the door, "handcuffed him and took him away." Negussie said her husband does not have an attorney but claimed he is innocent.</p><p>"He didn't killed people. He didn't kill people," she said emphatically. "He's honest person. They just accused him. I know him."</p><p>Negewo fled to the United States in 1988 after being released from prison in Ethiopia and eventually became a U.S. citizen.</p><p>Smith said the U.S. government made a mistake in 1995 when it granted Negewo citizenship despite knowing of his past. That made it harder for them to remove him.</p><p>"It's fair to say under the old Immigration and Naturalizations Service, he should not have been issued his citizenship in 1995 and that significantly complicated his removal from the United States," Smith said.</p><p>In 1993, a U.S. district judge ordered Negewo to pay $1.5 million to three women who testified that he tortured them during Ethiopia's "Red Terror" campaign of 1977-78. The women said they were stripped, hung upside down from a pole and beaten.</p><p>One of the three had recognized Negewo when both worked at an Atlanta hotel.</p><p>Negewo denied the charges and claimed he didn't know the women, while accusing them of belonging to a violent political group. Negewo came to this country under political asylum and pointed out that he himself had been imprisoned after falling out with the regime.</p><p>Negewo was the first person arrested under the newly enacted intelligence act of 2004, officials said.</p>