UK diplomats clash over Briton on death row in Ethiopia: Officials’ fury after Foreign Secretary claims he couldn’t ‘find time’ to help father-of-three facing execution

• Andargachew Tsege was snatched by officials at Yemen airport last June

• The 59-year-old was transferred to Ethiopia where he is thought to remain

• Father-of-three moved to London in 1979 from native African country

• He was dubbed ‘Ethiopian Mandela’ after exposing government corruption

• Leaked emails revealed British officials’ frustration at political inaction

• Philip Hammond said he could not ‘find time’ for phone call on issue

Daily Mail

Ian Birrell for The Mail on Sunday

January 24,2015

Yet Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he could not ‘find time’ for a phone call to raise the issue and did not want to send a ‘negative’ letter.

In one email, an exasperated official asks: ‘Don’t we need to do more than give them a stern talking to?’

Tsege, who has lived in the UK since 1979, has been called Ethiopia’s Nelson Mandela. Tsege fell out with his university friend ex-Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, after he exposed government corruption and helped establish a pro-democracy party.

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