A witness in the trial of an immigrant accused of lying to gain entrance to the U.S. broke down repeatedly Tuesday as he described beatings he saw at the Ethiopian prison where the man was allegedly a guard.
Kiflu Ketema, 58, who spent 18 months at the "Higher 15" prison in Addis Ababa, said Kefelgn Alemu Worku was the most feared man in the prison, where guards routinely tortured and murdered political prisoners.
He and other prisoners were sometimes brought into an interrogation room to witness torture sessions, Ketema said. Through tears, he described watching as prisoners were beaten on the soles of their feet and burned with cigarettes.
"It was horrible," he said.
But beatings weren't confined to the interrogation room, and prisoners, who were packed in so tight they couldn't lie down, were never free of fear.
Alemu Worku was the most brutal of all the guards, he said. "He was a big fish, he was the most feared person in 'Higher 15,'" he said under questioning by Alemu Worku's lawyer, Matthew Golla.
Ketema was imprisoned during the late 1970s, a period of political disruption in the East African country known as the Red Terror. During that time a Marxist military regime imprisoned, tortured and killed thousands.
Golla asked Ketema how he could identify Alemu Worku after more than 30 years. The guard passed by him all of the time as he walked through the prison, Ketema responded.
"I would have picked him out from a million persons," he said.
Among false statements that Alemu Worku is accused of making in applying for naturalization is the answer "no" he gave when asked if he had ever persecuted anyone because of race, religion of political opinion.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dpmcghee
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