Wolkite High Court in Gurage zone sentenced Beharu Wondemagegn to death after he was found guilty of brutally killing his wife.
Beharu, who brutally beat his wife to death and threw her body into a nearby river on April 2, 2020, was pardoned two years ago from a life sentence after he similarly murdered his ex-wife.
According to the zonal communication office, Beharu, a resident of Barwa Kebele in Ener Woreda, Gurage Zone, repeatedly threatened to kill his wife, Atsede Zemedagegn.
The prosecutor charged the man with aggravated homicide under the Ethiopian Criminal Code, which dictates that such actions could result in imprisonment for life or death.
In Ethiopia, the last death sentence was executed in 2007, when a military officer convicted of murdering the former head of security and immigration Kinfe Dagnew, was killed. Before that, the last recorded execution was carried out in 1998.
The Criminal Code leaves the execution method to be determined by the executive body and bars public hanging and any other inhumane forms of execution.
