Andy Tsege and other UK nationals imprisoned abroad

Andargachew Tsege is a UK national who is currently on death row in Ethiopia. He was allegedly transferred there by the Yemeni authorities in 2014 after he had sought to transit through Sanaa international airport.  He had been sentenced in absentia to death in 2009 for allegedly being part of a coup plot.

He originally fled to the UK from Ethiopia in 1979, during the rule of dictator Mengistu Hailemariam, whose regime was overthrown in 1991 by the current Ethiopian Government.

In late July 2015, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released an opinion in which it described Mr Tsege’s detention as illegal. The report concluded that the “adequate remedy would be to release Mr Tsige and afford him adequate compensation.”

The UK Government has been accused of failing to do enough for him. In late-August, the Foreign Secretary published an Open Letter about the case on the government website.

In September 2016, Mr Tsege’s nine-year old daughter was denied an application for judicial review of the UK Government’s handling of her father’s case by the High Court. Her lawyers have decided not to appeal.

In October 2016 Ethiopian and UK-based human rights groups wrote a Letter to the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, criticising the Government and urging it to do more on behalf of Mr Tsege.

In November 2016, supporters claimed that Mr Tsege was “in fear for his life” in prison.

His case has been raised in Parliament by a number of MPs. In a March 2016 report on the FCO’s human rights activities, the Foreign Affairs Committee raised Mr Tsege’s case, saying that over this Parliament it would be monitoring the FCO’s efforts to assist him.

Members may also seek to raise the cases of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe and Kamal Foroughi, both of whom are currently imprisoned in Iran.