“When Edgegayehu Taye took a job in an Atlanta hotel, she never expected the service elevator doors to open one day and reveal the man who tortured her years before in Ethiopia. Nor could she have predicted what it would take to see justice done.”
Andrew Rice in the New York Times Magazine:
Six months after he arrived in America, Kelbessa applied for political asylum, saying he had been persecuted and imprisoned by Ethiopia’s military dictatorship. It was the Reagan era, and Ethiopia was Communist; the application was quickly approved. Kelbessa then set about achieving his next goal: saving enough money to send for his three children, who were still stuck in Ethiopia. (He and his wife were divorced.) He worked the graveyard shift at a convenience store and took a second job, washing dishes at the Colony Square Hotel. Later, he was promoted to bellhop.
One afternoon, Kelbessa was outside the employee locker room, waiting for the service elevator. The elevator doors opened, and another Ethiopian walked out, a young woman in a waitress’s uniform.
More here.