Prosecutors ‘have the wrong person’, war crimes suspect says at ‘red terror’ trial
The Hague — On Monday, a Dutch-Ethiopian national denied committing war crimes during bloody purges in Ethiopia in the late 1970s known as the "red terror", denying he ever signed orders to execute political opponents. Prosecutors "have the wrong person", Eshetu Alemu said as his trial opened in The Hague. "I was really shocked when I heard what prosecutors are accusing me of doing, that I could behave like that as a human being," he added, in a rare case before a Dutch court. "I deny the charges against me," he said. Alemu is alleged to have been a henchman for former Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in northwestern Gojjam province. The hearings involve "a grim series of events involving the incarceration, torture and murder of opponents of the 1970s revolutionary regime in Ethiopia," the prosecution said before the trial. A total of 321 victims have been named in four war crimes charges, which include the "arbitrary detention and cruel and inhuman treatment of civilians and ...
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