2nd Letter to H.E. Field Marshall Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi President Republic of Yemen

July 7, 2014

H.E. Field Marshall Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi

President Republic of Yemen Sana’a, Yemen

Re: Extradition of Andargachew Tsege, Secretary General of Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy from Yemen to Ethiopia

Your Excellency:

We are writing to you condemning in the strongest words possible the deplorable actions taken by your government to abduct and then extradite Andargachew Tsege, to the minority ethnic dictatorship in Ethiopia. On July 1, 2014, we had written a letter to you expressing our grave concern over the illegal abduction and detention of Andargachew Tsege while in transit at Sana’a International Airport on June 23, 2014.

In our letter dated July 1 that was hand delivered to your embassies around the world. it was made abundantly clear that Mr. Tsege a well-known pro-democracy icon and human rights advocate in his ancestral homeland, Ethiopia, presented no threat, what so ever, to Yemen or to the Yemeni authorities.

We had stated in the letter that the continued illegal detention of Mr. Tsege, a renowned critic of the Ethiopian government is politically motivated and against international law. We had also requested that you use the powers vested in your office to stop any illegal renditions the regime in Ethiopia may have requested.

It was explained in that letter that Mr. Tsege was imprisoned in Ethiopia for his political activities during the ill-fated national election of 2005 and had escaped recent assassination attempts by the tyrannical regime whose brutality, is well documented even by the United States State Department.

It is an affront to civilized society that Yemen has blatantly abrogated the doctrine of non-refoulement, now recognized as a norm of customary international law. Your government handed Mr. Tsege over to the security forces of the minority regime of the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) whose persecution of Ethiopian critics at home and in exile is well documented.

The brazen action of your government which defied International law, morality, and human decency, threatens to permanently impair the positive and historical relationship between the Ethiopian people and the Yemeni people. Nothing that Yemen can do will ever repair the damage that has already been done. Make no mistake that we will hold the government of Yemen responsible for the danger to the life and physical integrity of Andargachew Tsege.

Sincerely,

Berhanu Nega, Ph.D.

Chairman Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice Freedom and Democracy