[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 10



BULGARIA/LIBYA:

Families of Libya death-row nurses demand acquittal


The families of 5 Bulgarian nurses on death row in Libya over an Aids
infection controversy demanded that the women be acquitted when their
final appeal is heard in Tripoli Wednesday.

The families of Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valya Cherveniashka,
Valentina Siropulo, and Kristiana Valcheva also say that a new death
sentence followed by an expected pardon later would not be justice for the
5.

"My mother is categorical: she was taken to prison innocent and wants to
go out innocent. I agree," Ivailo Nikolchovski, son of Dimitova, said.

The 5 nurses and a Palestinian doctor have twice been sentenced to death
on charges of injecting more than 400 Libyan children with Aids tainted
blood at a hospital in Benghazi. 56 of the children have since died.

The European Union has led negotiations over compensation for the
remaining children and their families but the talks are stalled.

The 6 death row inmates are meanwhile appealing to Libya's supreme court
on the basis of testimony by international health experts, including
pioneering French Aids researcher Luc Montagnier, who say that the
epidemic in Benghazi broke out before the Bulgarians arrived.

The supreme court is Wednesday expected to uphold the death penalty. The
next stage could then be a compensation package to the childrens' families
so that Libya's Supreme Judicial Council commutes the execution verdicts
to prison terms.

The nurses and the doctor, who was recently granted a Bulgarian passport,
would then be able to serve out their sentences in Bulgaria, which has a
prisoners exchange agreement with Libya.

Dimitrova was arrested in 1999. Her son, 34, works as a temporary driver
to make ends meet. He has a 7-year-old daughter but does not live with the
child or her mother. Instead, he shares a modest apartment in Sofia
neighborhood with his father and sister.

His own apartment was sold and the money spent to arrange his mother's
trip to Libya, where she hoped to find a well-paid job to support the
whole family.

"The tragedy made me much more sensitive," Nikolchovski said. He cannot
believe "that in the 21st century there could exist such a nightmare and
that most countries can accept it due to their business interests in
Libya."

Zorka Anachkova, mother of Valcheva, said that Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi should clear the nurses. "If Kristiana has to come back to be
imprisoned again here, I would die from the injustice," she said.

Anachkova said that her daughter had been tortured by Libyan police.

"She was interrogated naked and blindfolded in a center for dog training.
She was beaten. When she passed out they brought her round by electric
shocks. One policeman put out his cigarette on her toenails. When she
begged for water one of the prison guards forced her shoe in her mouth.
She was drugged. I wonder how she survived," Anachkova said.

The family of Valentina Siropulo also angrily demands justice.

"She has to be acquitted so that everyone can verify her innocence. This
nightmare has to end," said sister-in-law Tsvetanka Siropulo.

When Siropulo left for Libya, her son Lyubomir was a high-school student.
He is now doing a master's degree in information technology in Sofia.

"Many of his exams coincided with the hearings of the Libyan court. The
hardship made him more independent, taught him to fight on his own. His
successes lend courage to his mother," Tsvetanka Siropulo said.

In the small mountain town of Kotel in central Bulgaria, Nenova's mother,
Stanka Stoynova, could not stop crying.

"She is innocent but if the Libyans do not recognize that, any solution
will be good, provided that it brings her back," the retired biology
teacher, who is in frail health, said between sobs.

(source: Middle East Times)






IRAN:

Woman faces stoning for adultery----Man already reportedly stoned to death
last week


Amnesty International has issued an 'urgent action' appeal on behalf of a
woman in Iran who is facing imminent death by stoning for adultery. This
comes days after a man, described as the woman's partner, was reportedly
stoned to death last week.

The woman, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, aged 43, was convicted along with Ja'far
Kiani of adultery more than 10 years ago and both had been imprisoned for
11 years in Choubin prison, in Qazvin province, north-west Iran. Their two
children, one of whom is aged 11, are believed to live in prison with
their mother.

Mokarrameh Ebrahimi and Ja'far Kiani were convicted under article 83 of
Iran's penal code, which prescribes execution by stoning as punishment for
adultery committed by a married man or a married woman. In this case the
judge's "knowledge" that the adultery had taken place was deemed to be
proof of the offence.

After several dates were fixed for the public executions in June, delays
had led to hopes that the executions would not proceed. However, the
campaigning organisation 'Stop Stoning Forever' recently reported that
Ja'far Kiani has already been stoned to death in Aghche-kand on 5 July,
with local government and judiciary officials and members of the public
taking part in the killing. On 8 July the newspaper E'temad-e Melli also
reported that local people and a source close to a local parliamentary
representative had confirmed the execution.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

'To execute anyone by stoning is barbaric and disgraceful; to execute a
woman for adultery in this cruel way simply beggars belief.

'It is imperative that Iran's head of the judiciary takes immediate steps
to stop the shameful stoning of Mokarrameh Ebrahimi while clarifying what
has happened to her co-accused Ja'far Kiani.

'Iran should abolish the sentence of stoning once and for all.'

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases as the
ultimate cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. Execution by stoning is
particularly cruel, being specifically designed to increase the victim's
suffering since the stones are deliberately chosen to be large enough to
cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately.

Amnesty International is also calling on the Iranian government to abolish
all executions by stoning and to impose a moratorium pending the repeal or
amendment of article 83 of the penal code. Amnesty International is aware
of at least eight other individuals under stoning sentences in Iran:
Ashraf Kalhori (f), Iran (f), Khayrieh (f), Shamameh Ghorbani (also known
as Malek) (f), Kobra N. (f), Soghra Mola'i (f), Fatemeh (f), and Abdollah
F. (m). The organisation calls for these, and any other stonings in Iran,
to be commuted.

Amnesty International also opposes the criminalisation of consensual adult
sexual relations conducted in private, and further urges the Iranian
authorities to review all relevant legislation with the aim of
decriminalising such acts.

In addition to executing people for adultery, Iran is the only country in
the world that still officially executes child offenders - people
convicted of crimes committed before they were 18. Last month Amnesty
International published the names of 71 child offenders currently facing
execution in Iran. Of the 24 child offenders executed in Iran since 1990,
11 were still children at the time of their execution. Others are held in
prison until their 18th birthday before being hanged.

Background

In December 2002 Ayatollah Shahroudi, Iran's head of the judiciary,
reportedly sent a ruling to judges ordering a moratorium on execution by
stoning, pending a decision on a permanent change in the law, which was
apparently being considered by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei.

However in September 2003 a law concerning the implementation of certain
kinds of penalties, including stoning, was passed, which appeared to
undermine this moratorium. Also despite the supposed moratorium, Amnesty
International continued to record sentences of stoning being passed,
though none of these were known to have been implemented until May 2006,
when a woman and a man were reportedly stoned to death. The two victims -
Abbas (m) and Mahboubeh (f) - were reportedly stoned to death in a
cemetery in Mashhad after being convicted of murdering Mahboubeh's
husband, and of adultery, a charge which carries the penalty of stoning.
Part of the cemetery was cordoned off from the public and more than 100
members of the Revolutionary Guard and Bassij Forces, who had been invited
to attend, reportedly participated in stoning the couple to death.

In November the late Minister of Justice, Jamal Karimi-Rad, denied that
stonings were being carried out in Iran, a claim repeated on 8 December by
the Head of the Prisons Organisation in Tehran. Campaigners against
stoning have since said that there is irrefutable evidence that the
Mashhad stoning did indeed occur.

In mid-2006, a group of Iranian human rights defenders began a campaign to
abolish stoning, having initially identified 11 individuals at risk of
stoning. Since the campaign began, 3 individuals have been saved from
stoning: Hajieh Esmailvand (f), Parisa (f) and Najaf (m). Others have been
granted stays of execution, and some of the cases are being reviewed or
re-tried.

(source: Amnesty International--United Kingdom)

**************

Convicted adulterer stoned to death


A man convicted of adultery was stoned to death last week in a village in
northern Iran, a judiciary spokesman said Tuesday, the 1st time in years
that the country has confirmed such an execution.

Jafar Kiani was stoned to death Thursday in Aghchekand, 124 miles west of
Tehran, said spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi.

Death sentences are carried out in Iran after they are upheld by the
Supreme Court. Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is punishable by
stoning.

Jamshidi did not elaborate on how the stoning was carried out. Under
Islamic rulings, a man is usually buried up to his waist, while a woman is
buried up to her neck with her hands also buried. Those carrying out the
verdict then throw stones until the condemned dies.

International human rights groups have long criticized stoning in Iran as
a "cruel and barbaric" punishment.

Before Iran's confirmation, U.N. human rights chief Louise Arbour
condemned the execution, her spokesman said.

"The execution has apparently gone ahead despite Iran's moratorium on
execution by stoning, a moratorium that had been in effect since 2002,"
said Jose Diaz of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"Stoning is in clear violation of international law," Diaz said in Geneva.
He said Arbour considered stoning to be a form of cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment that is prohibited under an
international treaty that Iran has signed.

In Oslo, Norway, Iran's ambassador was summoned by Foreign Minister Jonas
Gahr Stoere to protest the stoning, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said.

Gahr Stoere was "deeply upset" that the death penalty had been carried out
and called stoning an "inhumane and barbaric method of punishment," said
Foreign Ministry spokesman Frode Andersen.

The reported execution came two weeks after international pressure,
including protests from Norway, caused Iranian officials to delay carrying
out the sentence against Kiani and his female companion, Mokarrameh
Ebrahimi, who also was sentenced to death by stoning. It was not known if
a date had been set for her execution.

The couple had reportedly been imprisoned for 11 years.

Stoning was widely imposed in the early years after the 1979 Islamic
revolution that toppled the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and
brought hard-line clerics to power. But in recent years, it has seldom
been applied, although the government rarely confirms when it carries out
stoning sentences.

There is no official report of the last time Iran stoned someone to death,
but there were unconfirmed media reports that a couple was stoned in 2006
in the northeastern town of Mashhad.

Women's rights activists headed by feminist lawyer Shadi Sadr have been
campaigning to have the sentence removed from Iran's statutes.

Iran's reformist legislators have demanded an end to death by stoning as a
punishment for adultery, but opposition from hard-line clerics sidelined
their efforts.

Capital offenses in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy,
blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, adultery or prostitution, treason and
espionage.

(source: Associated Press)

****************************

Code of Punishment for Adultery in Iran

Adultery is a capital offense in the Islamic Republic of Iran and
punishable by flogging, hanging, and stoning. The following is a
translation of the articles of the Islamic Penal Code of Iran that pertain
to the legal punishments for adultery.

Translated by: Dr. Soheila Vahdati

Compared with the original text by: Gholam Hossein Raeesi, Attorney at Law

The Islamic Penal Code

Book II  Hodoud (Shari'a-based Punishments)

Section I  Shari'a-based Punishment for Adultery

Chapter 1- Definition and Reasons for Adultery Punishment

Article 63  Adultery is defined as the intercourse between a man and a
woman whose intercourse is inherently forbidden "haraam", even if it is
from behind, other than those cases where the person has had a doubt
[i.e., mistaken identity].

Article 64  Adultery is punished when the adulterer is mature*, sane, and
acting by free will and is also aware of the offence and its punishment.

Article 65  If a man or a woman is aware that the intercourse with the
other party is forbidden, and the other party is not aware, thinking that
the intercourse is legitimate, then only the party who has been aware that
the intercourse is forbidden shall be sentenced to the punishment.

Article 66  If a man or a woman who have had intercourse together claim
mistake and unawareness, then in the case that the claimant deems honest,
then the claim is accepted without oath and witness and the punishment is
annulled.

Article 67  If an adulterer claims that s/he has committed adultery under
duress, her/his claim is accepted if the contrary is not believed to be
true.

Chapter 2- Methods of Proving Adultery in Court

Article 68  If a man or woman confesses to adultery 4 times before the
judge, s/he will be sentenced to the adultery punishment and if they
confess less than 4 times, then s/he will be punished by Tazeer. [Tazeer
refers to the punishments that are not defined by Sharia' and it is left
to the Sharia' Judge to specify it by sentence to imprisonment, cash fine,
or flogging in which case the number of lashes must be less than Hodoud.]

Article 69  The confession is valid when the confessor has the virtues of
maturity*, sanity, willingness, and liberty.

Article 70  The confession must be explicit or appear to be not
inconsistent with the case.

Article 71  If a person confesses to adultery and then denies it, if the
adultery is to be punished by killing or stoning**, then the denial annuls
the punishment of killing and stoning. Otherwise, with the denial after
the confession the punishment is not annulled.

Article 72  If a person confesses to the type of adultery that is
punishable and then repents, the judge can either ask the Head of
Judiciary for clemency or carry out the punishment.

Article 73  A woman who does not have a husband, shall not be punished for
becoming pregnant unless her adultery is proven by one of the methods
mentioned in this law.

Article 74  Adultery, when punishable by either flogging or stoning, can
be proven by the testimony of either 4 just men, or 3 just men and 2 just
women.

Article 75  If adultery is punishable by flogging, then it could also be
proven by the testimony of 2 just men and 4 just women.

Article 76  The testimony by women alone or along with the testimony of a
just man does not prove adultery but the witnesses will be subject to the
punishment for false accusation (Qazf) as specified by the law. [Qazf: is
defined as accusing a person of adultery or anal sex. It is punishable by
80 lashes. (Article 139)]

Article 77  The testimony of the witnesses must be clear and without
ambiguity and based on observation and testimony based on conjectures is
not credible.

Article 78  If the witnesses describe the specifics of the subject of
testimony, there should be no discrepancy in their descriptions in terms
of the time, place, and such. In case of discrepancy among witnesses
testimonies, then not only the adultery is not proven but the witnesses
will be sentenced to punishment for false accusation (Qazf).

Article 79  The witnesses must testify one after another without any lapse
of time. If some of the witnesses testify and then some other witnesses
are not immediately present to testify or do not testify, then adultery is
not proven. In this case, the witness will be subject to punishment for
false accusation (Qazf).

Article 80  The adultery punishment shall be executed immediately except
for the cases described in the later articles.

Article 81  If the adulterer repents prior to the testimony, then the
punishment is annulled and if s/he repents after the testimony, then the
punishment is not annulled.

Chapter 3  Types of Adultery Punishment

Article 82  The punishment for adultery in the following cases is killing
and there is no difference between young and not-young and marriage-bound
and not marriage-bound.

a. Adultery with mahaarim [Mahaarim of a person are the relatives by blood
or marriage who are within the prohibited degree of marriage such as ones
siblings, parents, and in-laws.]

b. Adultery with step-mother which shall constitute the killing of the
adulterer.

c. Adultery of a non-Muslim with a Muslim woman which will constitute the
killing of the adulterer.

d. Adultery by force and duress that will constitute the killing of the
forcing adulterer.

Article 83  The punishment for adultery in the following cases is stoning.

a. Adultery of a marriage-bound man that is defined as a man who has a
permanent wife and has had intercourse with her while being sane and can
have intercourse with her whenever he so wishes.

b. Adultery of a marriage-bound woman with an adult man, a marriage-bound
woman is a woman who has a permanent husband and the husband has had
intercourse with the woman when she was sane and has had the opportunity
to have intercourse with the husband, too.

c. Adultery of a marriage-bound woman with a minor constitutes flogging.

Article 84  An old adulterer or an old adulteress who qualifies as
marriage-bound shall be subject to flogging punishment prior to stoning.

Article 85  Revocable divorce, prior to the end of the possible revoking
period, does not disqualify a man or woman from being marriage-bound, but
irrevocable divorce disqualifies them from being marriage-bound.

Article 86  Adultery by a man or a woman when each has a permanent spouse
but has no access to the spouse due to travel or imprisonment or similar
reasonable excuses, shall not constitute stoning.

Article 87  A married man who before penetration [into his wife] commits
adultery shall be sentenced to flogging, having his head shaven, and one
year of exile.

Article 88  The adultery punishment for a man or woman who does not meet
the marriage-bound conditions is 100 lashes.

Article 89  Repetition of adultery prior to executing the adultery
punishment will not constitute repetition of the punishment if the
punishments are the same, but if the punishments are of different types,
like some constitute flogging and other constitute stoning, then flogging
punishment shall be executed prior to stoning.

Article 90  If a man or woman commits adultery several times and at each
instance is punished, then will be killed upon the 4th instance.

Article 91  During pregnancy and parturition bleeding the woman shall not
be subjected to murder or stoning. Also after the childbirth if the infant
has no guardian and there is a concern that the infant might die, the
punishment will not be carried out, but if a guardian is found for the
infant then the punishment shall be executed.

Article 92  When a pregnant or breastfeeding woman is to be punished by
flogging and there is concern for possible harm to the pregnancy or the
breastfeeding infant, then the punishment will be delayed until the time
that the punishment causes no such harm.

Article 93  If a sick person or menstruating woman is sentenced to be
murdered or stoned, the punishment shall be carried out but if sentenced
to flogging then the punishment will be delayed until the sickness and
menstruation is over.

Article 94  If there is no hope for recovery of a sick person, or the
Sharia judge (hakeme shar) deems appropriate that the punishment be
executed during the sickness, then a bunch of 100 lashes or whips will be
inflicted once even if not all of them touch the body of the convict.

Article 95  If the convict sentenced to punishment becomes insane or
converts, the punishment shall not be annulled.

Article 96  The flogging shall not be carried out in too cold or too hot
weather.

Article 97  The punishment cannot be executed in the land of the enemies
of Islam.

Chapter 4  How to Execute the Punishment

Article 98  When a person is sentenced to multiple punishments, the order
of carrying out the sentences must be such that none of them prevents
another, therefore if someone is sentenced to flogging and stoning, first
flogging and then stoning shall be carried out.

Article 99  If adultery by a person, who meets the marriage-bound
conditions, is proven by his/her confession, then at the time of stoning
the first stone will be thrown by the Sharia judge and then by others, and
if the adultery is proven by the testimony of witnesses, then first the
witnesses will throw stones, then the Sharia judge, and then others.

Note  Absence or lack of action of the judge and witnesses in throwing the
first stone shall not prevent carrying out the sentence and in any case
the punishment must be executed.

Article 100  The flogging punishment for an adulterer man shall be carried
out as he is standing and wearing no clothing except to cover his
genitals. Lashes must forcefully inflict his entire body except for his
head, face, and genitals. An adulterer woman shall be flogged in a sitting
position with her clothes bound to her body.

Article 101  It is appropriate that the judge informs the public of the
time of the punishment and it is necessary that a group of believers, not
less than three people, be present when the punishment is carried out.

Article 102  An adulterer man shall be buried in a ditch up to near his
waist and an adulterer woman up to near her chest and then stoned to
death.

Article 103  In case the person sentenced to stoning escapes the ditch in
which they are buried, then if the adultery is proven by testimony then
they will be returned for the punishment but if it is proven by their own
confession then they will not be returned.

Note  If the person sentenced to flogging escapes they shall be returned
in any case.

Article 104  The size of the stone used in stoning shall not be too large
to kill the convict by 1 or 2 throws and at the same time shall not be too
small to be called a stone.

Article 105  The Shari'a Judge can act upon his own knowledge in the cases
of [defending] the Gods Rights (Haghollah) and People's Rights (Haghonnas)
and carry out the punishment constituted by the God and it is necessary
that he documents his knowledge. The execution of the punishment in case
of God's Rights (Haghollah) is not contingent upon anyones request but in
case of People's Rights (Haghonnas) is contingent on the owner of the
right.

Article 106  Adultery during the holy times such as religious festivities
and Ramadan and Friday and at holy places such as mosques will constitute
flogging in addition to the regular punishment.

Article 107  The presence of the witnesses is necessary when stoning
punishment is carried out but the punishment shall not be annulled due to
their absence but it shall be annulled with their escape.

---------------------------------------------

*Note by translator: A man is mature at the age of 15 lunar years, and a
woman is mature at the age of 9 lunar years, given that the physical
maturity is visible, too.

** Note by translator: Stoning in the Islamic Penal Code of Iran refers to
stoning to death.

[source of the Original Code in Farsi (Persian):
http://www.hoqouq.com/law/article363.html]

(source: Meydan)






CHINA:

Death sentence and 2 life terms for Hong Kong tea-house murder


A Chinese assassin was sentenced to death and three Hong Kong men
sentenced to life imprisonment Tuesday for the so-called "tea-house
murder" of a Hong Kong millionaire. Harry Lam, 54, a director of the Hong
Kong-based Digger Holdings and an investor in the Mission Hills Golf Club
in Shenzhen, was shot dead as he ate breakfast in the famous Luk Yu
tea-house in Hong Kong's Central district in 2002.

5 Hong Kong residents and 3 mainland Chinese defendants including the
gunman went on trial in the Shenzhen People's Court in China for his
murder.

After a 9-month trial, hit-man Yang Wen, 27, was Tuesday sentenced to
death and 3 Hong Kong men were sentenced to life imprisonment for their
roles in the killing.

Lam was murdered in an organized hit that rocked the relatively crime-free
city of 6.9 million. The mastermind, former actor Victor Yeung, was among
the 3 sentenced to life imprisonment.

China insisted on hearing the trial on the grounds that it was plotted on
Chinese soil. If the trial had taken place in Hong Kong, no death penalty
would have been possible.

Calls from some legislators demanding the case be moved to Hong Kong were
rejected by the Hong Kong government which insisted China did have
jurisdiction over the case.

Under the terms of the handover in 1997 when Hong Kong reverted to Chinese
sovereignty, the former British colony retained much of its autonomy under
a "1 country, 2 systems" arrangement which guaranteed an independent
judiciary.

(source: Earth Times)






ETHIOPIA:

Ethiopia Finds Imposing Death Sentences Easier than Carrying Them Out


An Ethiopian prosecutor's seeking of the death penalty Monday for 38
opposition activists has drawn expressions of shock from Washington and
outrage from human rights groups. The defendants have until Wednesday to
present evidence to reduce their sentence. They have been jailed since
November, 2005, refusing to defend themselves because they did not think
they would get a fair trial. Author and human rights attorney Michael
Clough calls those charges unwarranted. He says that Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi cannot be seen allowing death sentences to be carried out in his
country.

"It sounds to me like Meles has already laid out the terms. There will
probably be some kind of sentence that would seem on the surface to be
fairly harsh, but will then allow the government and Meles in particular
to claim that he took a reasonable stand, and that he pardoned the
leaders, despite their role in the violence," he said.

The accused include a leading human rights defender, 76-year old Professor
Mesfin Woldemariam, several journalists, 2 women, and leaders of the
opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy party (CUD). The defendants
face charges of usurping the constitution, and a few are still confronted
by the government with leading an armed rebellion against the state.
Earlier treason and attempted genocide charges were dismissed as 28 other
defendants were freed back in April because, observers say, the
prosecution lacked a case. Clough says it's highly unlikely that many
defendants will agree to sign government-fashioned admission of guilt
statements in exchange for being pardoned, as has been suggested in the
weeks since the defendants' June 11 conviction.

"It';s possible that there may be some way to work out some sort of a deal
if they were to go through with a death sentence. In any of these cases,
it would cause serious damage to their international standing, so I'm sure
the government is looking for some sort of compromise. But given what's
happened so far, I'd be surprised if many of them (the defendants) were
willing to agree to anything that amounted to an admission of
responsibility for the violence, which was essentially perpetrated by the
government," Clough explained.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is on record as saying there will be no death
sentences in these cases. But with prosecutors and perhaps a zealous judge
determined to mete out penalties, Michael Clough says the Prime Minister
needs to have a ready-made agenda to activate to keep outside opponents
from discrediting him.

"I think Meles is one of the more astute political leaders in Africa, and
it probably serves his interests to have the prosecutor calling for the
death penalty, and then Meles trying to represent himself as a voice of
reason. I think that the whole thing is a bit of a charade, because
obviously, the only reason that these people are on trial in the first
place, is because Meles Zenawi was embarrassed by what happened in the
2005 elections," he said.

On Monday, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called on the
Ethiopian government to make a final sentencing determination that helps
bolster the rule of law and promotes reconciliation. Clough sees US policy
goals in Ethiopia to be motivated by ends far beyond the State Department
sentencing objectives put forth.

"The only reason the United States is not speaking out harshly against
this is because of Ethiopia's role as an ally of the United States in the
war on terror and its involvement in Somalia. If this same thing happened
in any country that the United States was not supporting, we would be
denouncing it in the most extreme terms," he said.

(source: VOA News)