US Immigration Enforcement
ATLANTA — On July 26, a federal jury in the Northern District of Georgia convicted Mezemr Abebe Belayneh, 67, of Snellville, Georgia, of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship by lying about his role in persecuting teenagers in Ethiopia for their political opinions.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Belayneh unlawfully obtained U.S. citizenship in 2008 by lying about and concealing the fact that he persecuted and committed acts of violence against political opponents during a period known as the “Red Terror” in Ethiopia. The Red Terror was a campaign of brutal violence in the late 1970s when Ethiopia’s ruling military council and its supporters detained, interrogated, tortured and executed thousands of perceived political opponents.
Belayneh concealed that conduct when he obtained a visa to enter the United States in 2001 and when he naturalized to become a U.S. citizen in 2008.
The jury convicted Belayneh of one count of procuring citizenship contrary to law and one count of procuring citizenship to which he was not entitled. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 30 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count. A federal district court judge will determine his sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
HSI Atlanta investigated the case with coordination provided by the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC).
Established in 2008, the HRVWCC furthers HSI’s efforts to identify, locate and prosecute human rights abusers in the United States, including those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, female genital mutilation and the use or recruitment of child soldiers. The HRVWCC leverages the expertise of a select group of agents, lawyers, intelligence and research specialists, historians and analysts who direct the agency’s broader enforcement efforts against these offenders.
Currently, HSI has more than 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. Since 2003, the HRVWCC has issued more than 78,000 lookouts for individuals and stopped over 350 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the United States.
Members of the public who have information about foreign nationals suspected of engaging in human rights abuses or war crimes are urged to call the HSI tip line at 866-347-2423. Callers may remain anonymous. Individuals can also fill out the online tip form.
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. HSI’s workforce of more than 8,700 employees consists of more than 6,000 special agents assigned to 237 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
When are abba fanuel, abba petros , ESAT, mesay Mekonen, mahibrekiduisan and rest of genociders who are ordering killings of innocent civilians be brought to justice ?
For those who suffered at this demon’s hands and survived to see this day of justice they deserve, I say congratulations. You are the lucky ones because most of the victims of those demonic commies of the 1970’s did not live to see justice delivered to them like this. Such search for similar torturers, tormentors and murderers should go on until demons like one are all apprehended. How about those who killed humanitarian aid workers during the 1984-85 famine. That should also include those who killed innocent civilians since 1991. Catch’em and bus their satanic asses to jail and throw away the keys.
I hope next will be TPLF leaders and their supporters will be face justice against Amhara, Afar, and stealing billions of Ethiopian wealth.
Dear Ethiopian compatriots, keep up the god job and bring to justice the rest brutal torturers and murderers of the Woyane TPLF and the current OLF, OPDO Oromo radicals criminals by the supply of information to Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC) and DHS US department of Homeland Security.
Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC).