ADDIS ABABA, May 26: Ethiopia’s supreme court on Monday sentenced former Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam to death, granting a prosecution appeal that a life sentence he received last year did not match the seriousness of his crimes.

Mengistu, who has lived a life of comfortable exile in Zimbabwe since he was driven from power in 1991, is unlikely to face punishment unless Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe loses a run-off election next month and cedes power.

“Considering the prosecution’s appeal that a life sentence was not commensurate to the crimes committed by the Mengistu regime, the court decided to sentence him to death,” the court said in its ruling.

The prosecution in July appealed against a life term imposed on Mengistu in January 2007, after he was found guilty of genocide arising from thousands of killings during his 17-year rule that included famine, war and the “Red Terror” purges of suspected opponents.—Reuters