A jury convicted a Gwinnett County man late last month for fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship, putting him in jeopardy of spending up to 20 years in prison.
Mezemr Abebe Belayneh, a 67-year-old Snellville resident from Ethiopia, moved to the U.S. in 2001. Seven years later, he unlawfully become a naturalized citizen by lying about his past involvement in Ethiopia’s Red Terror, a campaign of oppression and mass killing in the 1970s. According to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta, Belayneh persecuted teenagers for their political opinions.
“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting human rights, and those who commit atrocities will not find safe refuge in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, in a statement. “Thanks to the courage of the victims of these horrible abuses and the persistence of investigators and prosecutors, Mezemr Abebe Belayneh is finally facing justice for the violence he inflicted on young people in Ethiopia 45 years ago.”
According to information presented in court, the prosecutor’s office said, Belayneh served as a civilian interrogator at a makeshift prison known as Menafesha in the city of Dilla, Ethiopia. Inside that crowded prison, Belayneh detained teenage victims for weeks or months, interrogating them about their political beliefs. He also inflicted severe beatings on victims, whipping them or hitting them with sticks, and forcing them to fight one another for the prison guards’ amusement.
Belayneh concealed that conduct from immigration authorities when he sought a visa to enter the U.S. in 2001, and when he naturalized in 2008.
Prosecutors said Belayneh’s activities took place in the context of the Red Terror period, when Ethiopia’s ruling military council and its supporters unleashed a wave of violence and repression against perceived political opponents. Estimates put the Red Terror’s death toll at “well in excess of 10,000″ according to Human Rights Watch.
Belayneh was convicted the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. A jury found him guilty of one count of procuring citizenship contrary to law and one count of procuring citizenship to which he was not entitled. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Belayneh is scheduled to be sentenced on November 1, 2023.
Atlanta-based staff with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a subagency within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), investigated Belayneh’s case.
“The United States is not a safe haven for these criminals, and we will never stop looking for them or seeking justice for their victims,” HSI Atlanta acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard, who oversees operations in Georgia and Alabama, said in a statement.
HSI currently has over 160 active investigations into suspected human rights violators and is pursuing more than 1,700 leads and removals cases involving suspected human rights violators from 95 different countries, according to the agency.
Individuals who have information about former human rights violators in the U.S. are urged to contact law enforcement through the HSI tip line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or through an online tip form at www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp
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