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

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 7



ETHIOPIA----execution

Ethiopia carries out rare execution----Execution is the second in a
decade----Military officer was convicted of shooting the country's former
head of security----Ethiopian law requires that condemned soldiers face a
firing squad


Ethiopia carried out its second execution in a decade on Monday, against a
military officer convicted of killing the country's former head of
security and immigration, the federal prison service said.

Major Tsehai Wolde Selassie was convicted of shooting dead Kinfe
Gebremedhin, a close ally of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, outside an
officers' club in 2001.

"Major Tsehai was executed after his appeal for clemency to the Supreme
Court was turned down and his death sentence was approved by President
Girma Wolde Giorgise," the Federal Prison Administration said in a
statement.

The last time Ethiopia carried out the death penalty was in 1998, when it
executed an Eritrean businessman for the shooting of a popular Ethiopian
general.

The FPA did not say how Tsehai was executed but soldiers are supposed to
face a firing squad, according to Ethiopian law.

Last month, an Ethiopian court rejected a prosecution request for the
death penalty for 35 opposition members accused of treason and inciting
violence during protests against alleged fraud in a 2005 election.

(source: Reuters)