Ethiopia Releases Former Royalty
The government Saturday freed seven female members of the former Ethiopian Royal Family imprisoned since a 1974 Marxist revolution ended the 44-year rule of Emperor Haile Selassie.
The women were greeted by relatives in a tearful reunion in the courtyard of the police headquarters, said a journalist who witnessed the release.
Freed Saturday were Haile Selassie’s 79-year-old daughter, Tenagne-Work Haile Selassie; her four daughters, Aida, Hirut, Seble and Sofia; her daughter-in-law, Sara Gizaw; and Zuriash-Work Gebere-Egziabher, a relative of the elderly princess.
The release of the seven leaves three grandsons of Haile Selassie still behind bars.
The 10 relatives were never brought to trial. Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, listed them among its prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia, and the government had ignored appeals for their release.
In Britain, Conservative members of Parliament had led an international campaign to win the royals’ freedom.
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