Search
All Categories EditorialGedab NewsAl-NahdaResistanceNegaritTigrignaArabicFeatured ArticlesEHRAGRegional EventsSpotlightAwate TeamCartoonsDocuments/InterviewsPerspectiveThe Fertile WombBranna
Gedab News
5 Currently Online
- Source column 1
Special Task Force Sentences Four Officials By Gedab News Nov 8, 2005, 11:31 PST
- Source column 2
Email this article Printer friendly page
General Haile “China” Samuel, Commander of the Fourth Operations Zone, summoned Mr. Ibrahim Said, Mr. Berhane Woldehawariat and two other un-named officials and handed them sentences ranging from four to five years. Since July 2003, the four officials, who used to be employed by the Port of Massawa and the Eritrean Maritime Transport Department, had been held in detention at the Naval Base prison, one of many legally unauthorized, secret jails in the country.
Ibrahim Said was the Director General of Maritime Transport and formerly the Head of Logistics in the Eritrean Relief and Refugees Commission (ERREC.) Berhane Woldehawariat was an administrator at the Port of Massawa. (See Gedab News: 18 July 2003)
A fifth official, Mr. Mebrahtu, acting manager of the Eritrean Shipping & Transit Agency Services (ERSTAS), was also arrested with the group, but he died in jail allegedly from complications of high blood pressure. He had been arrested at the Asmara Airport upon returning from Germany where he had sought medical treatment for his condition.
After their sentence, the four officials were transferred to Tsetserat Prison in Asmara, whose inmates are largely former fighters and veterans of the Eritrean Defence Forces. The prison authorities in Tsetserat were reluctant to receive the new inmates, in view of the fact that the prisoners were not accompanied with documentation indicating their status or verdict. The prison authorities were then ordered by the Special Task Force (see below) to take in the prisoners, which they promptly did.
Todate, no formal charges have been brought against the detained officials. In 2004, a three-person Special Task Force, which was formed a year earlier to investigate alleged irregularities in the Port’s administration, had made allegations in an Eri-TV program against the officials, without naming them. It now transpires that the four officials were, in effect, detained, investigated, accused, judged and ordered to be incarcerated by the same three-man Special Task Force, which has no legal jurisdiction to exercise any of these powers.
Background:
In 2003, a government Special Task Force was formed to investigate alleged irregularities in the Port's administration. The Task Force was composed of Maj. General Haile Samuel (Chairman), Maj. General Humed Karekare, who heads the Eritrean Navy and Mr. Mebrahtu Ma’el, General Manager of Ghedem Construction Co., a company owned by the ruling PFDJ party. In 2004, the Task Force made presentations on the state television, Eri- TV. Its “findings” were also broadcast in the official radio and published on the official newspapers. The public was informed that the detained port officials, who were not named in the broadcast, were guilty of conspiracy with Eritrean private businesses, allowing the latter to pay custom duties in the local currency, Nakfa, rather than US Dollars.
The public was exposed to only one side of the story. The jailed officials, who were neither given a similar opportunity to tell the public their side of the story, nor a chance to defend themselves in a court of law, maintained all along they had been acting within the law. Indeed, no official directive requiring Eritrean importers to pay customs in hard currency was ever issued. The only unpublished instructions in this regard came in mid 2003, when businesses were told to settle their import duties, retroactively, in US Dollars.1
This should have been sufficient basis to vindicate the detained Port and Maritime Transport officials. Moreover, the Task Force had been presented with copies of a letter from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) permitting Eritrean businesses to pay customs duties in the national currency (Nakfa).2 However; this was a matter that the Task Force elected not to address in its TV interview or in any other occasion.
The institutionalization of the Task Force signals a step backward compared even to the dreaded Special Court. The Special Court, which is presided over by army officers, does not allow defendants the services of a defence lawyer and its decisions are final (no right of appeal). Nonetheless, it entails a degree of formal prosecution: formal charges are brought against the defendant, court proceedings are conducted (if oppressive) and verdicts are based on citations from the Penal and/or Civil Codes. The case of the four Port officials, however, is one of complete lawlessness: no formal charges, no court, no lawyers and no appeal.
1 At the time, this led to an uproar in the business community in Eritrea. Importers were told they would be refunded their Nakfa and settle (anew) their import taxes for several years back in US Dollars. Many enterprises suffered big losses as a result (having had to pay in US dollars determined at the official rate).
2. Indeed, in their TV interview, the Task Force members visibly tried to avoid this issue (of the MOF letter). Mr. Mebrahtu Ma’el unconvincingly touched upon the issue saying, “some people say that the Port officials had authorisation to receive the taxes in Nakfa, but this should not detract from the fact that these people have deprived the country of hard currency, at a time of dire need. …”. Many Eri-TV viewers, who had expected revealing findings in view of the advertisements for the programme that run for several days prior to it broadcast, were surprised at the sheer shoddiness of the presentation and lack of evidence.
© Copyright 2004 Awate.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without written consent from the Webmaster@awate.com.
Gedab News Latest Headlines
Sudan & Eritrea: An Asymmetrical Game
Update: State of the Eritrean Opposition & Eritrean Government
Eritrean Officials: Hedging Bets On The West?
In Tit-for-tat, Eritrea refuses entry visas to Americans
Italy-Bound, 15 Eritreans Die In The Mediterranean
Sudan Rejects Venue To Eritrean Opposition Groups
Eritrean Government Arrests Contractors, Engineers
USA Restricts Movement Of Eritrean Diplomats, Businessmen
Eritrea-US Relationship Deteriorates To New Lows
Eritrea: An Unlikely Issue In American Politics
© Copyright 2004 by Awate.com