An Ethiopian court has found former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam guilty in his absence of genocide for atrocities committed under his regime, after a trial which has lasted 12 years.
Mengistu and 11 co-defendants who had served on the government's central committee, the Derg, were convicted on 211 counts of genocide, homicide, illegal imprisonment and illegal property seizure by Ethiopia's Federal High Court.
Mengistu, who was ousted in 1991 and took exile in Zimbabwe, was known as 'defendant number one' in the case against himself and other senior members of the Derg regime, including ex-prime minister Fikre Selassie.
Another 60 co-defendants were also found guilty of genocide, but only by a majority 2-1 ruling by the judges, who acquitted some but not all on several of the lesser charges.
Only one defendant was acquitted on all charges.
Those convicted, including Mengistu, face the death penalty and their lawyers have until 28 December to file motions seeking lesser sentences, the judge said.
All appeals have been exhausted, defense lawyers in Addis Ababa said.
In Zimbabwe, a member of President Robert Mugabe's government ruled out extraditing Mengistu to face justice.
The charges relate to atrocities committed during the 1977-78 so-called Red Terror period when tens of thousands of people were killed or disappeared.
He and his former top aides were also accused of the murders of former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, whom they overthrew in a 1974 coup d'etat, and Orthodox Patriarch Abuna Tefelows.
Of the 73 accused, 14 have died and only 34 were present in court. Mengistu was among 25 defendants tried in absentia.
