Eritrean trafficker given life sentence in Ethiopia
LEUL ESTIFANOS AN Eritrean trafficker who starved and tortured his victims to death was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia in Ethiopia yesterday, after escaping custody four months ago. Kidane Zekarias held thousands of African refugees and migrants, headed for Europe, in warehouses in Libya and extorted thousands of dollars from them and their families, according to charges seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The notorious smuggler was arrested in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, in 2020, after one of his Ethiopian victims, Fuad Bedru, recognised him on the street and alerted the police. "I am happy about the seriousness…