Ethiopia: Court passes sentences over two corruption cases

By Tesfa-alem Tekle

April 22, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — The federal high court of Ethiopia on April 18 passes prison sentences over a former bank employee and his accomplice on corruption cases. The federal ethics and anti corruption commission (FEACC) discloses.

The high court has found the defendants guilty of corruption by illegally switching off names and addresses of sender group, receiver and payment branches to be made, taking the advantage of secret code number while in duty.

Accordingly the court has sentenced the first defendant Sem Wube Eshete to 13 and his accomplice, Eyosias Tesfamariam to 7 years behind the bars.

The fraud was made targeting a total sum of 1,118,000 birr which was wired from the Finish evangelical church to the Ethiopian evangelical church.

A charge is laid to a third collaborator who is still out there hiding out.

According to the charges read the mastermind, Sem Wube, along with his two collaborators have withdrawn some 1,050,000 birr from three branch offices where they earlier opened a bank book for this deliberate mission.

(ST)