Tesfaye Tadesse, 25, was shot five times after four federal police officers took him away from his friend's house around 10:00 PM. The bullet-riddled body of the Kinijit activist was later found by his family.

EthioZagol said the dissident from the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD-Kinijit) was an active organizer in his neighborhood. He had been detained in June and November 2005 when the government embarked on a nationwide crackdown on dissent. The victim was the target of constant harassment by securitymen since his release from detention last November, his friends told EthioZagol.

Post-mortem results showed the slain had lost his front teeth and an eye due to severe police beatings, EthioZagol said, also quoting witnesses as saying the victim was shot five times before police drove away at sight of curious residents in the area.

"When I asked the police where they were taking my friend, they warned me to stay behind in my house," a friend of the slain dissident told EthioZagol, which said Tesfaye was the sixth Kinijit organizer murdered in Addis in the past week.

Ethiopia plunged into a terror state after the ruling party of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi suffered huge losses at the May 2005 elections and resorted to a nationwide crackdown on members of CUD-Kinijit, whose leaders have since been behind bars at Kaliti Prison. Judges who served on an Inquiry Commission and confirmed that the government was responsible for the killings of at least 193 civilians fled for their lives.