Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Andargachew cannot visited unless “officials permit”

July 15, 2014

The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a letter it sent to the Head of the Africa Section of the United Kingdom (UK) Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said that Andargachew Tsige would only get legal and consular services when “relevant bodies give the permission”.

The Ministry did not name who the “relevant bodies” are. Sources, however, say the so called ‘bodies’ are the security officials.

The Ministry wrote the letter after the Head of the Africa Section at the British Ministry of Foreign Office wrote a letter asking for a permission to “visit Andargachew Tsige”.

The British Office has been saddened by the response and is waiting for further responses, it has been learnt.

A family member of Andargachew Tsige said that Ethiopia’s intelligence officials are refusing Andargahcew from being visited so that they can record what he says due to excessive torture which they will later broadcast to the public with the aim of killing the spirits of the public. The family member said he had also notified this to the Office.

ESAT has received information that in order to force him to utter what he does not want to say, Andargachew has been tortured and denied sleep.

In a meeting held in the Prime Minister’s office last weekend, the officials of the Ethiopian Anti Terror Taskforce have stated that the methods of torture so far used on Anadargachew Tsige did not yield much thus it has been decided that they could execute additional torturing methods.

The inability of the Ethiopian Prime Minister and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to respond to the visitation requests exposes that the Country is being ruled by few people in the backdoor, said the sources.

Similarly, Ethiopians living in Japan have held protest rallies outside the British and Yemen Embassies today.