ADDIS ABABA, May 26 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's supreme court on
Monday sentenced to death former Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile
Mariam, granting a prosecution appeal that argued a life
sentence he was given for genocide was unequal to his crimes.
 

But 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 a life term handed to
Mengistu in January 2007, after he was found guilty of genocide
for thousands of killings during a 17-year rule that included
famine, war and the "Red Terror" purges of suspected opponents.
 

He and more than a dozen other senior officers were found
guilty after a 12-year trial that ruled Mengistu's government
was directly responsible for the deaths of 2,000 people and the
torture of at least 2,400.
 

Witnesses had told the court that family members who went to
collect the bodies of their loved ones were asked to pay for the
bullets that killed them, and evidence included torture videos.
 

Mengistu seized power in 1974 after the overthrow of Emperor
Haile Selassie, and clawed his way to the top in the military
junta called the Derg.
 

His regime's brutality was exemplified by the Red Terror
purges of 1977-78, in which at least 1,200 suspected political
opponents were murdered and their bodies dumped in the streets
as a warning to others.                
 

"Crimes committed by Mengistu and his co-defendants by
killing an emperor and burying him under a toilet is unheard of
in the annals of human history," the court ruling said.
 

Mengistu's 19 co-defendants were also sentenced to death,
but one, Lieutenant Akililou Belae, was sentenced to life.
 

The sentence will be carried out after the head of state
approves it.
 

Zimbabwe has refused to extradite Mengistu since he fled
there in 1991, when rebels led by current Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi toppled his regime and took the capital Addis Ababa.
 

But were Mugabe to cede power if he loses next month's
run-off to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Mengistu could
be extradited.
 

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change in late 2006
said it would withdraw the protection afforded by Mugabe's
government, which considers Mengistu a friend of Zimbabwe's
liberation struggle.