The former Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation CEO Tesfaye Birru (PhD) was found guilty in a case involving the Internet on Wednesday, August 17, by the Federal High Court first criminal bench, Capital learnt. This was the fourth and only pending case left against Tesfaye.

Tesfaye, his lawyer and family were present in the court to hear the final verdict that was postponed three times in a row. Finally on Wednesday, the court stating that he didn’t sufficiently defend the charge submitted against him, decided to hear the prosecutor and Tesfaye testify on August 23 in order to mitigate the penalty. Ethiopian Criminal Code Procedure says the court must hear from both parties before handing down sentence.

Earlier Tesfaye was acquitted of two of the charges filed in connection to the violation of regulations in the Lucent case and a billing system charge. The prosecutor charged Tesfaye for changing the billing system which caused bills to be lost when they were transferred. The prosecutor also argued that when the new system was introduced materials came from countries that were not allowed in the contract.

Tesfaye argued that the introduction of the new billing system was timely and part of the modernization process of the country’s telecommunication system. The newly introduced Ushacom system replaced the old AS 400 system which can’t process more than seven digits. The court acquitted him. Ushacom works with the newly changed ten digit system

But in the third charge that was filed in connection to awarding Eriksson a contract when they did not win the bid, Tesfaye was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison on February 9. The sentence was less than it could have been because he was never accused of criminal charges and his education background was taken into account as well as a letter written by Prison Police to the Federal High Court first criminal bench concerning his good behavior during his three year stay in prison. Similar letters from the AAU, Telecommunication Information Technology College and others were also attached. After graduating in Mathematics with a Bachelor of Science degree from Addis Ababa University (AAU) in distinction, the defendant received a Pfizer Award at Sheffield University when he completed his MA with great distinction.

After winning a Fulbright student scholar award, competing against many African contenders, Tesfaye conducted a research program at the University of Texas at Houston. He also studied software networking development for six months in Japan.

When he served as head of the AAU post graduate information science section, he headed the installation of the computer networking for the university.
In the course of the court proceedings the court rejected the 1.54 billion birr claim as a potential revenue loss of the corporation due to an inappropriate project bid award. The court ruled that one cannot be found guilty based on potential revenue loss.

Tesfaye, who has been charged with four corruption offences before the Federal High Court first criminal bench in February 2008, has been in prison for the last three years and five months.

Tesfaye will appear before the court on August 23 to submit his penalty mitigation appeal in the fourth and only remaining case, the broad band internet, where he was found guilty.

CapitalEthiopia