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| Africa Horn |
| Ethiopia arrests ex-head of army firm in crackdown on security services |
| 2018-11-14 |
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Æthiopia locked awayYouse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! the former head of a military-run industrial conglomerate on Tuesday and flew him in handcuffs to the capital, state media reported, a day after authorities announced investigations targeting senior members of the security forces. Kinfe Dagnew, a Brigadier General in Æthiopia’s army and former chief executive of METEC, was taken into custody close to the border with Sudan and Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... , state-run broadcaster EBC said. State media broadcast footage showing Kinfe surrounded by a ring of soldiers and later images of him in handcuffs arriving by military helicopter in the capital later on Tuesday. A documentary that aired Tuesday evening on state-owned Æthiopian Television (ETV) gave details of widespread alleged embezzlement by METEC. It said the firm, which was awarded a 24 billion Æthiopian birr ($863 million) contract by the state utility in 2011 to carry out electromechanical works at the Grand Renaissance Dam, had received 16.7 billion birr of the total amount so far but that only 23 percent was completed, at a cost of 9.46 billion. "Only 266 million birr was found in its bank account. The rest of the money had vanished," it said. It also alleged that the firm had taken over two aging ships that belonged to the state maritime agency but that they were used to transport contraband that it said were very likely to have included arms to Somalia and Iran - countries under United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... arms embargoes. The documentary claimed properties such as buildings were also purchased illegally by the company, with no records made available. A day earlier the attorney general announced the arrests of other METEC executives in a corruption investigation and the detention of security officials accused of abusing prisoners - moves that were welcomed by rights groups and a prominent opposition politician. |
| Posted by:Fred |