The Ethiopian high court has acquitted, for insufficient evidence, 11 former officials charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, AFP said on Thursday. All the officials served in Debre Zeyit, eastern Ethiopia, during the Marxist-style dictatorship of Mengistu Hailemariam. The court handed down 23 guilty verdicts for the same charges.
The trials are part of a series which began in 1994 of senior officials of the regime for crimes committed largely during the “Red Terror” period of the 1970s, in which tens of thousands of Ethiopians were killed or abducted. Over 6,000 people are charged, with 2,200 held in prison, and rest being tried in absentia, AFP said.
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