http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2016/10/18/boris-johnson-refuses-answer-mps-brit-held-ethiopia
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - 2:15pm
Reprieve
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Boris Johnson Refuses to Answer MPs on Brit Held in Ethiopia
The Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has today refused to answer
questions in the House of Commons about the case of Andargachew ‘Andy’
Tsege, a British father of three who is held on Ethiopia’s death row.
Mr Johnson and other Foreign Office ministers today faced several oral
questions from MPs about why their department has not requested the
return of Mr Tsege. Mr Tsege was kidnapped at an airport in June 2014,
and is now held in Ethiopia under a sentence of death imposed in
absentia in 2009.
Asking Mr Johnson about the case today, Stephen Timms MP said: “In
June this year, the Foreign Secretary’s predecessor announced in a
press release he had ‘secured assurances from the Ethiopian Government
Mr. Tsege will be granted access to a lawyer’. Those assurances
haven’t been honoured. Will the Foreign Secretary now formally request
the release of Mr. Tsege?”
Responding, Mr Johnson directed MPs to an open letter he had written
in August, which was posted on the FCO’s website, adding: “I cannot,
I’m afraid, comment further because our handling of this case is a
subject of ongoing legal proceedings.”
Mr Johnson appeared to be referring to an application for judicial
review brought by Mr Tsege’s family, which has now concluded. That
legal effort aimed to challenge the FCO’s strategy of pursuing ‘legal
access’ for Mr Tsege, and argued that he faces no prospect of due
process in Ethiopia. In June this year, the Ethiopian government
promised former Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond that Mr Tsege would
be given legal access – however, to date, Mr Tsege has yet to be
allowed to contact a lawyer.
Earlier this year, former Prime Minister David Cameron answered
questions in Parliament on the case, even though the family’s legal
proceedings were still under way.
Mr Tsege is a prominent critic of Ethiopia’s ruling party, and the
2009 in absentia proceedings that saw him handed a death sentence were
criticised by US diplomats as “lacking basic elements of due process.”
FCO officials have said privately that they “have not been shown any
evidence” against Mr Tsege that would “stand up in a UK court.”
Human rights organization Reprieve – which is assisting Mr Tsege’s
family – has raised concerns over Mr Tsege’s welfare, after the
Ethiopian government announced a ‘state of emergency’ on Sunday in
response to widespread protests in the country. Hundreds of protestors
have been shot in recent weeks, while there are reports of mass
arrests, a communications blackout, and plans to restrict the movement
of foreign diplomats around the country.
Commenting, Maya Foa, a director at Reprieve, said:
“As Ethiopia tightens its worrying ‘state of emergency’, it is
astonishing that Boris Johnson has refused to answer questions over
his department’s inaction on Andy Tsege. This is a British man who was
sentenced to death in absentia, kidnapped from an airport, and
rendered illegally to Ethiopia’s death row. It is unacceptable that
the UK has failed to ask for Andy’s return to Britain, when the
Ethiopian authorities have consistently broken their promises –
including their assurances that Andy would be given ‘legal access’. As
more than one MP suggested today, it is time for the FCO to drop the
charade that Andy can receive due process in Ethiopia – Boris Johnson
must instead call for Andy’s immediate return to his family in the
UK."
Reprieve is a UK-based human rights organization that uses the law to
enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo
Bay.
Received on Tue Oct 18 2016 - 21:46:35 EDT