Borkena
Toronto – Mitiku Kassa, former Disaster Risk Management Commissioner, is sentenced to 13 years in prison without parole and 50,000 Ethiopia Birr after a count found him guilty of corruption charges.
His spouse Sofia Jemal is sentenced to eight and four months prison terms, and 3,000 Ethiopian birr fine. Their daughter Milka Mitku is sentenced to five years in prison and a 3,000 birr fine.
It was the Federal Court of Lideta Bench in Addis Ababa that was looking into the corruption case.
The commissioner was arrested in July 2022 in connection with corruption. Police alleged that hundreds of millions of birr were embezzled.
At the time, police alleged that he was involved in corruption in collaboration with a local non-governmental organization which police identified as Enshaday Relief and Development Fund Association.
Finding from police investigation claims that the commissioner partnered with Elshaday to distribute emergency aid to “displaced people that do not exist.”
There were also cases where an exaggerated number of displaced people were provided ,and aid that was meant to be for displaced people was sold in the market. Money was redirected to personal use of the commissioner, according to the Attorney of Corruption Affairs Directorate in the Ministry of Justice.
BBC Amharic report indicated that establishing unethical and corrupt relations with Yemane Woldemariam, Director of Elshaday, is another charge that the commissioner faced in court.
The organization was said to have sold aid that was supposed to be distributed for displaced people in Amhara, Oromia and what used to be the South Ethiopia region.
Furthermore, an estimated 100 million birr was made “illegally” available to Elshaday Charity in the form of “support” and “load.”
As a compensation, Elshaday Charitable organization has made payment to the family of Mitiku Kassa.
Still another charge was that over 472.8 million birr was redirected to personal use in the form of payment to the family of the commissioner.
Residential homes and vehicles purchased in the name of the Commissioner’s spouse and his daughter are indicated in the charge.
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You think such abhorrent behavior exists only in Minnesota? You’re wrong. The only difference is the ones that stole from the hands that feed them in Minnesota, their heist is in US currency but the ones in Ethiopia was in Ethiopian Birr. They were stealing in the name of desperately needy people. Then when you catch them and throw them in prison, they accuse you of oppressing (by boogeyman Oromummaa) and racially profiling them in Minnesota. They tell you that stealing is their birth right.