Borkena
Toronto – Hawassa High Court earlier this week sentenced Professor Tsegaye Tuke to 13 years imprisonment without parole and a 21,000 Ethiopian birr fine.
He was serving as mayor of Hawassa city until he was removed and arrested in August 2023.
He was reportedly found guilty of a grand corruption scandal involving over 97 million birr. According to local sources, the 97,088,965 birr squandering of public funds was proven with audit reports and witnesses.
He was also found guilty of charges of misappropriation of funds.
Codefendants Tariku Tamene, who was serving as Hawassa city construction department head, and Tafesse Tunasha, are sentenced to 10 years and eight years of imprisonment respectively. Also, Seifu Lelise, another codefendant, is sentenced to eight years in prison. They will all be serving the prison term without parole.
They are also paying fines in addition to serving the above mentioned prison terms. Tariku Tamene 41,000 birr, Tafesse Tunasha 51,000 birr and Seifu lelise 76,000 birr;
Before this ruling, the court ruled in his favor Tsegaye Tuke over charges of 488,000 birr worth of furniture for his residence.
Corruption has become more prevalent on all levels of government across the country after Abiy Ahmed took power in 2018 despite a pledge to fight it.
Incidentally, chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee, Chirstian Tadelle, who pushed for the Prime Minister’s office to be audited, was thrown to jail over alleged link to the Fano movement in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
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