JUNE 8/2007

MURDERERS OF TESFAYE TADESSE STILL AT LARGE

On June 7/1998, lawyer, human rights activist and journalist TESFAYE TADESSE, the father of two young children, was brutally hacked to death outside his house by two men who were later identified as security agents of the Meles Zenawi regime. The killers are still at large. The brutal murder of Tesfaye was preceded by the daylight shooting to death of activist teacher Assefa Maru.

 Prior to the murder of Tesfaye, he had been arrested several times by the regime that tried to silence him and to stop his activities as a newspaper publisher and as a human rights activist. Tesfaye worked as a legal advisor of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council and collaborated with SOCEPP ever since SOCEPP got established in March 1995. The regime also leaked later on that it had suspected Tesfaye of being a secret member of the banned opposition party, the EPRP. This cold blooded execution of Tesfaye highlighted the brutality of the regime and its repressive determination to violently stamp out all dissent.

 SOCEPP condemns those who ordered the murder and those who took part in the crime and calls for the trial of the criminals in high and low places who are responsible for the brutal death of Tesfaye Tadesse.

SOCEPP