By Andrew Cawthorne ADDIS ABABA, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Ethiopia considers a spat over the expulsion of two European Union officials a closed matter despite Brussels' threat of "consequences" over the affair, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said. Addis Ababa kicked out the two diplomats last week, saying they had been caught trying to smuggle two wanted Ethiopians out of the country by car. One of the two Ethiopians, detained during the incident near the border with Kenya, is rights lawyer and local European Commission staffer Yalemzewd Bekele. Amnesty International says she is at risk of torture for aiding the opposition. "What happened was that members of the European Union delegate's office here were involved in the smuggling of people outside of Ethiopia," Meles told Reuters in his first public comments on the affair. "That is not a legal act for the average citizen or for diplomats." European Commission aid chief Louis Michel has protested to Meles that the pair -- an Italian and Swede -- had their diplomatic rights abused, and has said the affair "will and cannot remain without consequences". Meles said he hoped that would not be the case. "As far as Ethiopia is concerned, obviously it is a closed matter. We don't believe it has any bearing on further relations with the European Union," he said in an interview at his Addis Ababa office late on Tuesday. "What we have done is, in my view, the normal thing, when diplomats openly and flagrantly violate the law of the country. That was not done out of hostility or disrespect to the European Union," he added. EU ties with Ethiopia have plummeted since last year's post-election violence, which tarnished Meles' international reputation badly. The bloc halted direct budgetary aid after scores of people died in protests over the poll, and chief EU poll observer Ana Gomes was fiercely critical of irregularities. The EU and rights groups like Amnesty International have expressed concern for the safety of detained lawyer Yalemzewd. Amnesty said the Ethiopian appeared to have been arrested over involvement in the publication and distribution of a calendar by the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) promoting civil disobedience against the Meles government. "Amnesty International is extremely concerned that (another detainee) Alemayehu Fantu may have named Yalemzewd Bekele as being involved with the CUD calendar while he was being tortured, and that she may be tortured in detention," it said. Hailed by the West as one of a "new generation" of African leaders when he came to power in 1991, former guerrilla leader Meles has come under increasing fire from abroad over a government crackdown on the opposition. Amnesty said at least three others arrested over the CUD calendar are said to have died in custody.
