A brave Ethiopian runner who risked his life to reach Europe after enduring torture and enforced labour has told how moving the the UK is helping him achieve his dreams. Eskander Turki, 29, says he has a “dream life” in Belfast, where he met his wife, chef Amina Ahmed, 25, and works as an ice cream maker.
But in addition to loving life with his new job and family he is honing his prowess as a 5km and 10km runner. And now he will run for adopted country against Mo Farah as he seeks to win a place in the Olympics.
Eskander's new life is in sharp contrast to that in Ethiopia, where he was imprisoned for six months in 2010 in an underground cell for attending a protest while studying electrical engineering at college. He says during that time he was “tortured, burned and beaten.”
