A Georgia man was convicted Wednesday in a federal court for obtaining American citizenship by lying about his involvement in a brutal crackdown on teenage political dissenters in Ethiopia, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Thursday.
Mezemr Abebe Belayneh, 67, of Snellville, was convicted by the federal jury in the Northern District of Georgia of “one count of procuring citizenship contrary to law and one count of procuring citizenship to which he was not entitled,” according to a statement by the DOJ.
Belayneh had “served as a civilian interrogator at a makeshift prison known as Menafesha in the city of Dilla, Ethiopia” during the country’s communist “Red Terror” in the 1970s, the statement noted. Belayneh “detained teenage victims in a crowded prison for weeks or months, interrogated them about their political beliefs, […] directed and participated in severe beatings in which they were whipped or hit with sticks [and] forced prisoners to physically fight one another for the prison guards’ amusement,” per the statement. Belayneh then “concealed that conduct when he obtained a visa to enter the United States in 2001 and when he naturalized to become a U.S. citizen in 2008,” the statement reported. (RELATED: A Second Afghanistan? Biden Admin Prepares For The Worst In Ethiopia)
Man Convicted of Fraudulently Obtaining U.S. Citizenship
Defendant Concealed Participation in Persecution During the Ethiopian Red Terrorhttps://t.co/DWwiCabKUH
— Criminal Division (@DOJCrimDiv) July 27, 2023
The Red Terror was a brutal crackdown by Ethiopia’s then-ruling military council and its supporters targeting thousands of perceived political opponents and involving detention, interrogation, torture and execution, according to the DOJ statement.
Belayneh, due for sentencing on Nov. 1, “faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count,” the DOJ stated.
“The jury’s verdict is aligned with our commitment to holding accountable human rights violators who lie to enter the United States,” said U.S. federal prosecutor Ryan K. Buchanan, per the statement.
In a similar case, Kelbessa Negewo, who also took part in the Red Terror, gave up his U.S. citizenship before a second trial in Atlanta and was removed from the U.S. in 2005 to serve a life sentence in Ethiopia, according to The New York Times.
Ethiopia established the “Red Terror” Martyrs’ Memorial Museum in 2010 to honor the victims of the crackdown.