Games hope who fled torture dies in poverty
Telegraph.co.uk, UK - April 12, 2007

An athlete who fled torture and persecution in Ethiopia and hoped to run for Britain in the Olympics has died in poverty in London.

Dejere Kebede-Tulu, 25, came to Britain as part of a gold medal-winning World Championship team and was widely considered to be one of the best long-distance runners in the UK.

It was predicted he would be a medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

An inquest heard how the athlete's body was found by a friend in June last year after lying undiscovered for days in his flat in Holloway, north London.

Mr Kebede-Tulu escaped Ethiopia in 2001 following the murder of his father, a political activist. He sought political asylum here but was not allowed to work and had to live on £53 a week while trying to train as an athlete ...