Politician jailed for graft
Publish date: 11 May 2020
Issue Number: 872
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Ethiopia
A court in northern Ethiopia on Friday sentenced former Communications Minister and close ally of late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to six years in prison for corruption. Bereket Simon was arrested in January 2019 in Addis Ababa and transferred to Bahirdar, the capital of the Amhara region. Legalbrief reports that he was convicted of embezzling public funds and abuse of power. His co-accused, Tadesse Kassa, was convicted on the same charges. BBC News reports that Simon was a powerful figure in Zenawi's administration and was often described as the chief ideologue of the ruling coalition which came to power in the early 1990s.
