{"id":9628,"date":"2015-10-22T10:05:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T14:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=9628"},"modified":"2015-10-22T10:05:31","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T14:05:31","slug":"human-rights-group-chides-uk-for-failing-to-press-ethiopia-to-release-andy-tsege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/9628","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights Group Chides UK for Failing to Press Ethiopia to Release Andy Tsege"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Andargachew-Tsege-Photoshop-628x496\"<\/a>International human rights organization Reprieve is advocating for the release of a British man, who was arrested in Yemen and transported to Ethiopia, where he has been imprisoned for 15 months.<\/p>\n

Reprieve chided the UK government for not using a high-level trade event with Ethiopia to demand the release<\/a> of Andargachew \u201cAndy\u201d Tsege from prison.<\/p>\n

The group criticized British officials for failing to harness the opportunity presented by the UK-Ethiopia Trade Investment Forum, which was staged in London on Wednesday, to request for Andy\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

Andy, a father of three, is of Ethiopian decent. In 2014, he was arrested during an airport stop in Yemen by local intelligence officials and then transported to Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

Addis Ababa has accused Andy of being part of a terrorist organization seeking to destabilize Ethiopia by overthrowing the legitimate government.<\/p>\n

Andy, who is the secretary-general of an Ethiopian opposition group based in the diaspora, has been sentenced to death. Like other outspoken critics of the Ethiopian government living in exile, Andy was tried in absentia.<\/p>\n

Since his arrest, Andy has been held in a prison in Ethiopia, where he has reportedly been denied legal assistance and frequent consular services. He has also been unable to communicate with his family since his kidnap and detention.<\/p>\n

The UN Human Rights Commissions (UNHRC), which has urged the Ethiopian government to release Andy, said this summer it feared that the Brit was being tortured.<\/p>\n

According to reports<\/a>, Andy, who was placed in solitary confinement, has recently been transferred to a new prison described as \u201cEthiopia\u2019s gulag.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK government should be outraged by this behavior and should be responding in the strongest possible terms,\u201d said Kevin Laue of Redress, a human rights organization.<\/p>\n

The UK has come under serious criticism by rights groups who say officials have been slow in pursuing Andy\u2019s immediate release. The Foreign Office has also been criticized for pressing Ethiopia for more consular access rather than his immediate release.<\/p>\n

Andy\u2019s wife and mother of his three children Yemi Hailemariam wrote an article to the Independent<\/a> on Monday calling for his release. She pleaded with the Foreign Office and African Minster Grant Shapps MP to use the bilateral trading opportunity to press Ethiopia for Andy\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilip Hammond\u2019s Foreign Office has yet to as Ethiopia for his release. They still have not given me a reason why \u2013 but now I feel the question I have been asking for the past 15 months has been answered. Sir Simon McDonald, the top civil servant in the Foreign Office, recently admitted that human rights are no longer a \u2018top priority\u2019 as the government pursues a \u2018prosperity agenda\u2019 that puts trade interests above humanitarian principles,\u201d Yemi wrote.<\/p>\n

She added that the \u201cForeign Office has repeatedly told me that Andy\u2019s case is a \u2018priority\u2019 \u2013 but in the meantime, it is clearly business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maya Foa, the head of Reprieve\u2019s death penalty team, dismissed British officials for missing the trade meeting to press Ethiopia for Andy\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrant Shapps\u2019 promise to stand \u2018shoulder to shoulder\u2019 with Ethiopia will be cold comfort to Andy Tsege\u2019s desperate family in London. Even the UK\u2019s limited requests for proper consular access have been flatly ignored by our allies in Ethiopia. Andy is a British father who is the victim of a series of terrible abuses by the Ethiopia government,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International human rights organization Reprieve is advocating for the release of a British man, who was arrested in Yemen and transported to Ethiopia, where he has been imprisoned for 15 months. Reprieve chided the UK government for not using a…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44,1],"tags":[4387,4384,4967,4386,4385,1464,4388,1347,4383],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9628"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9630,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9628\/revisions\/9630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}