Politics As Usual
Shining a Light on Power and Policy
Tom Shine covers congressional politics for ABC News.
RECENT POSTS
- "The Stories Are Shocking In Their Simplicity And Brutality..."
- "Pipes Have Voltage, Get Shocked In The Shower"
- She May Have to Take the Stand "For Mommy" a Second Time
- The Army Calls A Reverse And Orders Football Star Caleb Campbell To Serve
- "I Have Broken The Cycle Of Obesity..."
- "When I Joined the Navy, I Didn’t Know I Was Gay"
- You Might Not Be Able To Afford The Groceries, But Your Shopping Cart Will Be Clean
- For the Petersons 'The Price is Right'
- 8,763 DISABLED VETS DIED BEFORE THEIR CASES WERE REVIEWED
- HOLY PATRICK LEAHY, BATMAN!
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
Arrested, Jailed, and Sexually Assaulted In Ethiopia, She Fled To The U.S.
June 04, 2008 2:28 PM
ARRESTED, JAILED, and SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN ETHIOPIA, SHE FLED TO THE U.S. where she was detained and abused all over again. That is the story Zena Asfaw will tell a hearing chaired by California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, called to investigate problems with immigration detainee medical care.
Asfaw will tell Congress that she was arrested by Ethiopian government forces following the May 2005 elections. She was accused of being part of the opposition because there were messages on her cell phone from friends who strongly opposed the government. Held for 12 days, SHE WAS BEATEN AND SEXUALLY ASSAULTED, and even though she was eventually released, she feared for her life when police began rounding up and throwing people in jail after new riots broke out a few months later. It was then that she fled, traveling through 17 countries in 13 months to reach the United States where she applied for asylum.
Immigration officials welcomed her to the U.S. with a trip to jail.
There, while a judge pondered whether she deserved asylum, she got very sick and a nurse gave her seven pills to take. When Zena Asfaw questioned the nurse, the nurse became very angry and instructed the guards to check her mouth to make sure she swallowed each and every one of them. "Immediately my body started shaking..." Within minutes she suffered a SEIZURE, and fell off the bed. Other detainees yelled for the guards who took her to the detention center medical unit where she was given four more pills. Later that day she would VOMIT VIOLENTLY, BLEED FROM THE MOUTH and FAINT before finally being taken to a hospital.
Zena Asfaw was lucky. She survived BOTH a jail in Ethiopia and an ICE DETENTION CENTER IN THE U.S. Five months later, she got her asylum.
June 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (6)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
We need a a place the size of Rhode Island if we are to accomodate all those who are fleeing arrest,torture, and sexual assualt from the country of Ethiopia run by a terrorist minority regime.
Posted by: Jomo | Jun 5, 2008 6:31:50 PM
Asfaw's story is just the tip of the ice berg. The May 2005 election defeat of the ruling tribal warlords unleashed a regin of terror that still reverberate across Ethiopia. Maimed, raped, tortured and murdered youth of the nation shall always remind Ethiopian's a brutality no less atrocious than that of fascist Italy, that savagely masacred the citizens of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, just before the second world war.
Posted by: nile | Jun 6, 2008 9:59:53 PM
what a white lie Asfaw lied to get asylum!!the truth is far different from the tale of the asylum seeker.
Posted by: kebede | Jun 7, 2008 3:06:56 AM
Does the nurse mentioned in this story still have a license? I hope not! Regardless of how many asylum seekers are "faking it" as others are quick to point out, the nurse still has an oath to uphold. She did not. This nurse does not belong in the medical profession.
Posted by: AmAbroad | Jun 8, 2008 4:45:16 AM
i live in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Abeba, and i am proud to live in a time where there is progress in economy as well as politics. Ethiopia has become a place where no one is arrested for the political beliefs he/she holds. As for Asfaw i think her reason is full of lie. she said that she was held for a short time and then released. i was in the capital during the election time and the crisis that followed the election. and i really appreciated the government for handling the cases almost all of the suspected detainees were soon released as Asfaw said. the whole fabrication of lie by Asfaw also reflects the reality which is not pleasant, people in Ethiopia especially from the cities now have access to western medias and the internet and they try to live the kind of life that the westerners are living and they are determined to pay any kind of sacrifice. the problem is not in wishing to be like westerners but the problem is in the way how to achieve it.
Posted by: david | Jun 9, 2008 7:39:19 AM
This is one of the bad face of the tigray or melese zenawe adminstration. If all of the ethiopian's women get the opportunity to tell what is going on in ethiopia, asfaw's story could be the simple one.
Posted by: Kiddy | Jun 9, 2008 7:50:02 PM
Post a comment
