Suspected Illegal Phone Operators Cost Govt 16.2 Million Birr

Allafrica.com (Addis Ababa) Girum Getachew

27 December 2010

 The Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (FEAC) charged 15 individuals with running illegal international phone calling businesses, on Tuesday, December 21, 2010, after investigating them for the past three months.

Police arrested 43 suspects during a raid carried out in different parts of the city in October 2010, out of which 25 were released due to a lack of evidence. The charges against the remaining defendants were instituted after the Federal High Court First Criminal Bench granted investigators three consecutive adjournments to collect evidence. Another defendant was arrested in the course of the investigation.

Prosecutors of the commission charged the defendants with corruption costing the government and the public 16.2 million Br, and maladministration of government work.

Among those charged, Nebiat Getahun and Biniam Girma used to work for the former Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) as a server administration engineer and a network administration engineer, respectively. They were charged with abusing their position and passing on privileged information, which they were privy to, to third parties for profit.

Alongside Biniam, the prosecutor also charged Melaku Hailu, and Abiy Hailu, all three of whom are not in custody.

Melaku has been importing and distributing various software (PCTalker and Ras Addis) used to make international phone calls as well as giving out account numbers for them which were valued in dollars, prosecutors claimed.

He was also charged with paying money to Nebiat and Biniam to facilitate the use of the illegal software. Nebiat had sold information only he knew, which enabled him to use a port number that was previously closed by ETC, prosecutors alleged. He recieved 400 Br for the information in December 2007, they claimed.

Biniam was charged with aiding Melaku in facilitating his illegal phone calling business. He had closed the port of Biruh, software used to make illegal international calls and used by Melaku's competitors, at the latter's request, the charge read. More reading on allafrica.com.