Briton freed after four years on death row in Ethiopia

A BRITON who spent four years on death row in Ethiopia walked out of prison yesterday, freed by the regime that once labelled him a “terrorist”.

Andargachew Tsege, who fled to Britain in 1974, was greeted by hundreds of supporters who gathered outside his family’s home in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, to celebrate the release of one of the government’s most outspoken critics.

Mr Andargachew, perhaps unable to grasp the scale of Ethiopia’s rapid political thaw, seemed stunned by the reception.

“I did not expect this turnout,” he said, suggesting he did not deserve it since “four years in prison is not that much of a sacrifice”.

While waiting to catch a connecting flight to Eritrea in 2014, Mr Andargachew was seized by armed men in a transit lounge at an airport in Yemen.

He was immediately bundled on to a flight to Addis Ababa, with Ethiopia claiming it had merely extradited one of its most wanted men.

Britain protested, but Ethiopia stood firm: as one of the leaders of Ginbot 7, a group of Ethiopian exiles who had based themselves in neighbouring Eritrea, Mr Andargachew was a “traitor” and “coup plotter”.

In the past year, however, Ethiopia’s ruling coalition has been forced to yield to domestic pressure after an ethnic and political crisis threatened to tear apart the old political order. In the past three months, the Ethiopian government has pardoned more than 10,000 political prisoners.

Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, hailed the release, saying: “Recent moves by the Ethiopian government send a positive signal that they remain serious about following through with promised reforms.”