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Haile Selassie was Emperor of Ethiopia. His dynasty ruled for centuries, supposedly descending from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

In 1974 he was overthrown in a coup by a Marxist-Leninist military junta called the Derg. Over the following months, the insurrectionists executed 60 members of Haile Selassie's government, before murdering the former Emperor in his bed in 1975.

Lij Mulugeta Asseratte Kassa is a relative of Haile Selassie. He spent time with the Emperor in the days leading up to the coup and was imprisoned for nine years by the Derg. He speaks to Ben Henderson.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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(Photo: Emperor Haile Selassie in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Credit: Terry Fincher/Express via Getty Images)