A man with several aliases and who was convicted of killing 101 and torturing many others in his native Ethiopia was hiding out in the U.S. city of Denver.

Referring to the man as Kefelegn Alemu Worku, U.S. Homeland Security Investigators and Immigration Customs Enforcement officers said others may have known the man by a number of different names, including Habteab Berhe Temanu or Tufa.

U.S. Federal authorities said they now know Kefelegn stole an identity to gain U.S. citizenship and to put a past life behind him — one in which he was a high-ranking member of a political party that killed at least 10,000 people in Ethiopia.

Kefelegn was living in an apartment at 8861 East Florida Avenue, in Denver Colorado when he was arrested on Aug. 24. U.S. Federal agents were tipped off about Kefelegn’s location by an informant who is also a native of Ethiopia and was an inmate at a prison where Kefelegn worked in the 1970s.

According to the indictment, Kefelegn stole an identity that he used to forge his U.S. citizenship application. If convicted on charges of unlawful procurement of citizenship and aggravated identity theft, he could face 10 years in prison.

It is not clear if Kefelegn would be deported back to Ethiopia, where he could potentially face much serious charges. Still deportation does not appear to be out of the question.

“Homeland Security Investigations will not allow international human rights violator fugitives to seek safe haven in the United States,” Denver Special Agent Kumar Kibble said.  “In addition to investigating these fugitives, HSI also works to strip the U.S. citizenship from these individuals who fraudulently obtained it.”

Federal authorities say Kefelegn was a high-ranking prison official under Ethiopia’s dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. Kefelegn is believed to have been working at the “Higher 15,” a prison with the capacity for 1,500 inmates where political prisoners were often held.

During 1977 — just one year into Mengistu’s seventeen-year reign, a time often referred to as the “Red Terror” — at least 10,000 people were killed in the Ethiopian city of Addis Ababa alone.

The federal informant told authorities he saw Kefelegn personally torturing prisoners in 1977 and later learned that many of those prisoners were being executed at Kefelegn’s hand.

After digging further, federal authorities said they spoke with two more Ethiopian refugees who are now naturalized U.S. citizens — both of whom also identified Kefelegn and said they were personally beaten and tortured by him.

Investigators also said they found a news story that indicates a prison guard named Kefelegn Alemu was sentenced to death for his role in the execution of 101 people. The story did not include last names, which is typical in Ethiopia, according to authorities.

Kefelegn is scheduled to appear for a hearing in federal court on Sept. 4.

Fox News Denver