Ethiopian Olympic finalist Besu Sado, who competed in the 1,500m race at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, has pleaded guilty to murdering her husband and now faces life imprisonment, multiple media outlets are reporting. The 27-year-old athlete was handed the sentence after being found guilty of killing her husband following an argument about money in August 2022.
Sado’s two brothers and two other suspects were also charged with the murder of her spouse, but one of her brothers and the two suspects are still at large. – Read more: Ethiopian runners affected by murder-suicide
Sado, who won the 1,500m silver medal at the 2015 All-Africa Games, had been in a relationship with her husband Tamru for eight years before he was stabbed in his apartment in the village of Sendafa, Ethiopia. According to BBC, the couple’s argument escalated into a deadly altercation. It is also understood that her husband “perform magic on my family, on my mother, on my brothers and on me to keep us from success.”
Despite the tragic circumstances surrounding her personal life, Sado had established herself as a talented athlete on the international stage, representing her country at the 2015 and 2017 world championships, as well as the 2016 Olympic Games.
She advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s 1,500m at both world championships, and finished ninth in the Olympic final.
Sado was a three-time national champion in the 1,500m event, with a personal best time of 3:59.47. In 2022, she had recently transitioned to the marathon, finishing third in the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris with a time of 2:23:16.
Her personal best time in the marathon came from her fourth-place finish in the 2019 TCS Amsterdam Marathon, with a time of 2:21:03.
As the investigation into the murder of her husband continues, the authorities are still searching for one of Sado’s brothers, who reportedly assisted in the killing and fled the scene on the night of the crime.
