Mengistu Haile Mariam, accused of a 17-year reign of terror in Ethiopia, faces a long-awaited genocide verdict in a sign of Africa's new resolve to bring ex-leaders to account for past abuses.
The former Marxist ruler, now nearing 70 and living in comfortable exile in Zimbabwe, is accused of killing tens of thousands of people after toppling Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.
In the most notorious purge, the Red Terror, thousands of suspected opponents were rounded up, executed by garrotting or shooting, then tossed into the streets.
Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe in 1991 but has been the subject of a 12-year trial in absentia in Addis Ababa.
The prosecution blames the lengthy case on the complexity of the proceedings but Ethiopians hoping to close the door on a painful era indicated they weren't troubled by the delay.
"I know that even if Mengistu and all his supporters are sentenced to death, there is no way I will get my son back," said Abebe Girma, 60, a pensioner whose son was accused of being an opposition supporter and executed in the 1977-78 Red Terror.
"Just the same, I want justice to be done."
Most of Africa's many former strongman rulers in the decades since independence have avoided facing legal charges. But activists believe the continent is finally strengthening its resolve to tackle a litany of past abuses.
Liberian warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor became the first African leader last month to stand before an international court in Sierra Leone, where he awaits trial on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
And in June, an African Union summit is to decide whether to extradite former Chad President Hissene Habre to Belgium to face charges of mass murder and torture during his 1982-1990 rule.
The International Criminal Court is also probing war crimes in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"Things have changed hugely since the bipolar (Cold War) world when the only people who could deliver any justice were the people there," said Richard Dowden, head of the UK-based Royal African Society, referring to Africa's coup-laden past.