Ethiopia: Seven Tax Officials Set Free in High Profile Corruption Case
By Bewket Abebe, 10 November 2013
The Federal High Court's 15th Criminal Bench released seven tax officials on Monday, November 2, 2013, after prosecutors from the Federal Ethics & Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) dropped all charges against the defendants.
The released officials, who had all been charged under the file of their superior Melaku Fenta - the former director general of ERCA - were Nebiyou Samuel, former deputy director ; Asfawossen Alene, head of Large Taxpayers' Office; Amha Abay, customs affairs advisor; Girma Tafesse, head of branch offices coordination directorate; Tesfaye Mergia, manager of the Merkato Project; Amare Gebrewold, senior officer at the Office of the Director General, and Mulugeta Balcha, law enforcement work-process coordinator.
Nebiyou, Amha, Girma and Mulugeta, who had all been escorted by police to the 15th Criminal Bench to have charges read to them on Tuesday, October 29, 2013, had been in jail since that date, due to bail having been denied. Prosecutors had charged them with high level corruption crimes that carry more than 10 years of imprisonment, which judges had ruled made them ineligible for bail.
On Monday, however, in a courtroom packed with defendants' families, members of the public and the media, the four of them heard the news that the FEACC had dropped all charges against them. This was greeted with both surprise and delight by the defendants and their families.
Asfawossen, Tesfaye and Amare had not shown up in court, though they had been summoned.
Except for Mulugeta and Amha, the rest were charged with alleged involvement in an illegal committee that received the appeals of businessmen over their tax burden. A taxpayer can only appeal after paying at least 50pc of the total tax they are expected to pay, but this committee contravened the law, according to the charge.
On Mulugeta, the prosecutors had opened a charge file claiming that he, under the orders of Gebrewahed Woldegiorgis - the former deputy director general of ERCA - had favoured seven private companies not to pay the amount of tax expected of them.
The atmosphere in the courtroom, however, did not stay the same when the next batch of defendants faced the judges.
Melaku's lawyers, Teshager Yalew and Nuru Seid, appealed over mismatches between the document given to them and the one which was read in court. Lawyers of the other defendants raised the same issue one after the other. All the lawyers, barring one, claimed that they received copies of charge files that have fewer number of pages than the one which the court read to them.
Texts that were not properly photocopied and non-translated files were also part of lawyers' complaints.
As a result, the bench ordered that the claims raised by the defendants' lawyers be addressed by the prosecutors and scheduled to see the case on three consecutive days, from November 19 to November 21, with lawyers deciding which date they preferred.
Leaving the scheduling of the dates to the lawyers, however, created side talks among the defendants and the eruption of a heated exchange among the lawyers. As a result of the rising noise, the judges had to ask for silence. Though they allowed the lawyers to talk further, they could not agree, and instead shouted out different dates even louder.
At one point, Fikru Maru (MD), head of Addis Cardiac Hospital, who was on the left side of the court, loudly declared his displeasure with the serology chaos.
"Shall I decay in prison because the lawyers do not reach agreement on the dates?" He asked. "I will have to defend myself if the situation is to remain this way."
Silence filled the courtroom for a brief interval after his outburst, but the commotion soon returned. Eventually, the judges, who had heard his complaint quietly, seemingly lost patience with the disorder and demanded silence. Since the lawyers could not agree on a date, the judges decided the cases would be seen during those three dates without specifically assigning a date for each one- cases ready on each date would be handled as they come.
The bench finally concluded its proceedings with seven other rulings. These include the provision of full documents to the defendants' lawyers by the prosecutors, the stopping of 'biased' reports by the media and the handling of claims over health issues of defendants by the Addis Abeba Prisons Administration, rather than by the court.
view linkhttp://allafrica.com/stories/201311120298.html?page=
The Federal High Court's 15th Criminal Bench released seven tax officials on Monday, November 2, 2013, after prosecutors from the Federal Ethics & Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) dropped all charges against the defendants.
The released officials, who had all been charged under the file of their superior Melaku Fenta - the former director general of ERCA - were Nebiyou Samuel, former deputy director ; Asfawossen Alene, head of Large Taxpayers' Office; Amha Abay, customs affairs advisor; Girma Tafesse, head of branch offices coordination directorate; Tesfaye Mergia, manager of the Merkato Project; Amare Gebrewold, senior officer at the Office of the Director General, and Mulugeta Balcha, law enforcement work-process coordinator.
Nebiyou, Amha, Girma and Mulugeta, who had all been escorted by police to the 15th Criminal Bench to have charges read to them on Tuesday, October 29, 2013, had been in jail since that date, due to bail having been denied. Prosecutors had charged them with high level corruption crimes that carry more than 10 years of imprisonment, which judges had ruled made them ineligible for bail.
On Monday, however, in a courtroom packed with defendants' families, members of the public and the media, the four of them heard the news that the FEACC had dropped all charges against them. This was greeted with both surprise and delight by the defendants and their families.
Asfawossen, Tesfaye and Amare had not shown up in court, though they had been summoned.
Except for Mulugeta and Amha, the rest were charged with alleged involvement in an illegal committee that received the appeals of businessmen over their tax burden. A taxpayer can only appeal after paying at least 50pc of the total tax they are expected to pay, but this committee contravened the law, according to the charge.
On Mulugeta, the prosecutors had opened a charge file claiming that he, under the orders of Gebrewahed Woldegiorgis - the former deputy director general of ERCA - had favoured seven private companies not to pay the amount of tax expected of them.
The atmosphere in the courtroom, however, did not stay the same when the next batch of defendants faced the judges.
Melaku's lawyers, Teshager Yalew and Nuru Seid, appealed over mismatches between the document given to them and the one which was read in court. Lawyers of the other defendants raised the same issue one after the other. All the lawyers, barring one, claimed that they received copies of charge files that have fewer number of pages than the one which the court read to them.
Texts that were not properly photocopied and non-translated files were also part of lawyers' complaints.
As a result, the bench ordered that the claims raised by the defendants' lawyers be addressed by the prosecutors and scheduled to see the case on three consecutive days, from November 19 to November 21, with lawyers deciding which date they preferred.
Leaving the scheduling of the dates to the lawyers, however, created side talks among the defendants and the eruption of a heated exchange among the lawyers. As a result of the rising noise, the judges had to ask for silence. Though they allowed the lawyers to talk further, they could not agree, and instead shouted out different dates even louder.
At one point, Fikru Maru (MD), head of Addis Cardiac Hospital, who was on the left side of the court, loudly declared his displeasure with the serology chaos.
"Shall I decay in prison because the lawyers do not reach agreement on the dates?" He asked. "I will have to defend myself if the situation is to remain this way."
Silence filled the courtroom for a brief interval after his outburst, but the commotion soon returned. Eventually, the judges, who had heard his complaint quietly, seemingly lost patience with the disorder and demanded silence. Since the lawyers could not agree on a date, the judges decided the cases would be seen during those three dates without specifically assigning a date for each one- cases ready on each date would be handled as they come.
The bench finally concluded its proceedings with seven other rulings. These include the provision of full documents to the defendants' lawyers by the prosecutors, the stopping of 'biased' reports by the media and the handling of claims over health issues of defendants by the Addis Abeba Prisons Administration, rather than by the court.
view linkhttp://allafrica.com/stories/201311120298.html?page=
Comments
Post a Comment