The wife of a Briton who has spent seven weeks on death row in Ethiopia after being seized in Yemen has condemned the British government for showing little interest in his plight.

Yemi Haile Mariam, from Clerkenwell in London, said that the government had treated Andargachew Tsege “like a second-class citizen”, because of his Ethiopian ancestry, even though he is a British citizen with two British children who has lived in the UK since 1979.

Mr Tsege, 59, disappeared at Sana’a airport during a two-hour stopover as he travelled from Dubai to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, on June 23. He was taken to Ethiopia, where he has had no access to lawyers or consular officials.

He is secretary-general of a banned Ethiopian opposition movement,