I will not appeal your decision. You have already denied me justice by not letting me have a proper defense in this trial. I have done what you say, but I am not guilty. Ethiopia has been standing still, while our African brothers are moving ahead in the struggle to overcome poverty. What I did was in the best interests of my country.

As quoted by Donald Levine, Haile Selassie's Ethiopia: Myth or Reality?, Africa Today, May 1961