JOHANNESBURG – Ethiopia’s Supreme Court on Monday sentenced former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam to death, quashing a life sentence he was given last year as not commensurate to the serious crimes he committed during his rule in the 1970’s.

"Considering the prosecution's appeal that a life sentence was not commensurate to the crimes committed by the Mengistu regime, the court decided to sentence him to death," the court said, accepting a prosecution appeal that a life sentence would too lenient for the former dictator.

The death sentence will be carried out after it is approved by the head of state. But even if that were to happen Mengistu is unlikely to face punishment at least for now because Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government, which has protected the former dictator since he was deposed in 1991, has refused to hand him over to Ethiopia.

Mugabe’s government says it regards Mengistu as a friend of the southern African country’s liberation struggle after he gave valuable support to nationalists fighting for the country’s independence from Britain.

But the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party which analysts tip to defeat Mugabe sooner or later has promised to withdraw protection to Mengistu.

Mengistu was convicted of killing thousands of people during his 17-year rule that began with the toppling of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and included war, brutal purges and famine.

Mengistu, who now reportedly works as a security consultant to Mugabe, is said to have advised the Zimbabwean leader to pre-empt a possible mass revolt by depopulating opposition-supporting urban areas through the controversial slum-clearing exercise in 2005.

The slum demolition exercise condemned by the United Nations as a violation of poor people’s rights left at least 700 000 Zimbabweans without home or food while another 2.4 million people were also indirectly affected by the clean-up exercise. – ZimOnline