ADDIS ABABA, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Ethiopia charged the former head of military-run industrial conglomerate METEC with corruption on Thursday, nearly two months after his arrest, as part of a nationwide crackdown on graft in the public sector.
Kinfe Dagnew was charged with four counts related to the procurement of tractors, said a judge at the Lideta High Court in Addis Ababa.
He is the most senior official to be charged after dozens from METEC and the security services were arrested since November over graft and rights abuses. After taking office last year, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed to clean up state-owned firms and the military, and cancelled many METEC contracts.
One of those contracts was for the supplying of turbines for the nearly $5 billion Grand Renaissance Dam.
Kinfe was arrested on the border with Sudan and Eritrea after a months-long investigation into METEC, which uncovered suspicious procurement practices involving more than $2 billion.
Kinfe said in court he was clear about the charges and his lawyers asked for time to file their statement of defence.
His co-defendants faced three further charges. The judges adjourned the case to January 25 to receive statements.
Kinfe was chief executive of METEC for eight years, but resigned from his position two weeks after Abiy took office.
/Writing by Omar Mohammed; editing by Maggie Fick and Andrew Cawthorne/
For this and other former despots, all I can say is what goes around and many times in history it comes around. Now deal with it!!! It is showtime dear countrymen!!!!
We should all Praise The Almighty Our Creator to bring a means for a solution in this young visionary young man for so many grinding issues that have been bedeviling those glorious people who produced us all. That is because His Children have played critical roles in being the means to perpetuate His Blessed Words Among His Flocks. It was that country and the only country where the two major religions of the world had shown the rest of the world they can coexist as tolerant neighbors and fellow countrymen for millenniums. Both in Christianity and Islam, individuals who hailed from the same country you and I came from had played so critical roles in their early age of these two faiths. Centuries later others have given inspiration and the thesis groundwork for many huge denominations we see around the globe these days. You want me to cite examples? You really want me to give you ocular proofs for that? If you do that this beyond-repair Afro-centric/Ethio-centric septuagenarian will go on and on until you drop unconscious. What I would like you to do otherwise is read proven stories written about such people in both religions. And you know what? I came to know many of such feats in I articles I read on various Diaspora websites, other online postings and written stories as told in both religions over the years. You see, our old country was supposed to disappear from the face of the earth many times during the last 50 years if the wishes of those who salivated for her demise were realized. Those who had such ‘dreams’ were both foreign elements and domestic scabs in our midst, bigots who turn into demons, who fall terminally sick when they see us live in harmony. Now The Almighty is telling us very clearly that it is time to shape up. This is the last chance. This young leader is it! This is it! If you dream about yanking a group of people from their harmonious neighbors, I can tell you this with a 100% confidence: That will remain just as such, a dream, a pipe dream that will eat you up from within like a deadly cancer. Our Almighty’s Wrath will Descend Upon You!!!! We all know who you are and you treat others. You show yourself in ways not in our world famous values. You jump into insulting others for who they are or where they hail from. Your communication protocol is ‘you Oromo, you Amhara, you Tigrai, you Somali etc… .’. You are a disgrace to those noble people of the old country who are the pride of the colored every where. We all know your objective!!! You will never be able to found a territory, be it in Oromia, Amhara, Tigray or Somali Regions to call it your own personal fiefdom. This is a dead giveaway, end of story!!!!