An Ethiopian court on Tuesday postponed its verdict in the marathon genocide trial of former dictator Mengistu Haile Miriam until next year, saying it had to consider new defence evidence.
After 12 years of hearing testimony and evidence, the head of the three-judge panel trying the case at Ethiopia’s Federal High Court, Medhin Kiros, said the long-awaited ruling would be delayed until January 23 2007.
”As we received some evidence from the accused after we announced that we would be giving the final verdict, we have decided to postpone it to examine the new material and to get the opinion of the prosecutor,” he said.
Medhin, speaking to a packed courtroom filled with some of the families of thousands of people killed during the Marxist Mengistu’s 17-year regime, said the delay was needed for the judges to finish their review of the new evidence.
The trial began in 1994 and has been beset by logistical delays, but many had hoped it was coming to an end when the court announced in November that it would render its verdict on May 23 after hearing from 730 witnesses.
Mengistu, who has been living in exile in Zimbabwe since his 1991 ousting and was tried in his absence, is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, along with other former senior members of his so-called ”Derg” (Committee) regime.
The charges relate to atrocities committed during the 1977-78 ”Red Terror” period when tens of thousands of people were killed or disappeared in Mengistu’s bid to turn Ethiopia into a Soviet-style workers’ state.
He and his former top aides are also accused of the murders of Emperor Haile Selassie, whom they toppled in a 1974 coup, and Orthodox Patriarch Abuna Tefelows.
Families of victims lamented the new delay in the verdict.
”I have been waiting for this day for the last 13 years to see justice done and that the blood of my brothers and sisters was not in vain,” said Sisaye Tamerat, who told Agence France-Presse that Mengistu’s agents killed two of his brothers and a sister.
”I was eager to hear the final verdict to bury all my sadness and misery today [Tuesday],” the 52-year-old said, adding: ”That didn’t happen.”
Lemlem Bogale (48), who spent eight years in prison and lost her father and two brothers during the 1974-1991 Mengistu regime, said her family had hoped for closure with the expected verdict.
”We came here to hear the verdict, but to our surprise we are going home empty-handed,” she told AFP.
About 5 200 lower-ranking ex-soldiers and communist militants face similar charges in a series of other slow-running and oft-delayed trials in which verdicts are sporadically announced.
The evidence against Mengistu, who is approaching 70 and living relatively comfortably as a guest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, despite efforts to have him extradited, includes execution orders and video footage of assassinations and torture of detainees.
He is charged alongside 72 co-defendants, 26 of whom have also been tried in absentia. Only 35 members of the former regime were in court on Tuesday. All face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.
Families of some of Mengistu’s co-defendants present in court on Tuesday were also upset by the delay in the verdict, maintaining their relatives have already been held too long in prison without an end to their case.
”I am shocked, I was expecting some kind verdict today [Tuesday],” said one relative, Soloman Abera. ”These people have been in jail for more than 14 years, they endured enough during that time and their families have suffered a lot.
”As family members we were eager to hear some kind of verdict, no matter what it could be,” he told AFP. — AFP
