Ethiopian immigrant admits being guard accused of killing prisoners

Ethiopian immigrant admits being guard accused of killing prisoners

By Tom McGhee,
The Denver Post

An Ethiopian immigrant known as John Doe admits in a letter to a federal judge that he is Kefelegn Alemu Worku, who prosecutors believe tortured and killed dozens of political prisoners in his home country in the 1970s.

Worku, who was living here under the name Habteab Berhe Temanu, has been behind bars for almost 11 months on charges that he lied on immigration documents.

“I am not Habteab Berhe Temanu or ‘John Doe,'” Worku said in a handwritten letter to Senior U.S. District Judge John Kane dated June 23 and filed in the Doe case.

“My name is Kefelegne-Alemu-Worku … I lied to U.S. gov’t officials and I accepted documents that were not rightfully mine. This was wrong and I apologize for my errors I simpley wanted to live in America.”

Prosecutors believe that Worku took part in Ethiopia’s Red Terror, a purge of those suspected of opposing a Marxist regime that seized power in the 1970s. It isn’t known how many Ethiopians were arrested, imprisoned, tortured and killed during the period, but some estimates reach into the hundreds of thousands.

Worku is scheduled to be tried in U.S. District Court in Denver on Aug. 12. Instead of going to trial he wants to plead guilty at a hearing scheduled for Thursday.

And he wants to do so despite what his federal public defenders say, he said in the letter. “With this letter I plead guilty to count one and three regardless of my attorneys intervention.”

His lawyer, Matthew C. Golla, didn’t return a call for comment.

Kane has already made clear that he won’t rely on recommended federal sentencing guidelines — which would amount to time served — in sentencing Worku.

“I am an old man. I have already passed extra four months more valuable to me than the young man,” Worku said in a second letter to Kane, dated July 3.

In 2001, a British Broadcasting Corporation report, citing Ethiopian media, said a former guard at the prison, Kefelegn Alemu, was convicted in absentia of participating in the execution of 101 people. He was ordered hanged should he ever be found.

According to a court document, Worku is also known as Kefelegn Alemu.

Worku “held a position of power at the “Higher 15″ (also known as Kebele 15 or Kefetegna 15), a makeshift neighborhood prison in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,” according to a document filed in the case by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Worku entered the United States as early as 2002, according to a court document. Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said prosecutors are not sure about Worku’s age.

Worku had been working as a parking attendant in the Denver area, and he was arrested in 2012 after someone recognized him at a restaurant in Aurora.

In most cases, those found guilty of entering the country illegally are turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after serving any sentence.

ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said she couldn’t say if Worku would be sent back to Ethiopia.

According to the agency’s web page, ICE has arrested more than 250 people for human rights-related violations since 2004 and successfully obtained deportation orders for more than 590 known or suspected human rights violators.

Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, [email protected]