The Federal High Court sentenced Simachew Kebede, the major shareholder of DH Simex Plc which also owns Intercontinental Addis Hotel, to six years of imprisonment for the tax evasion crimes he was accused of. This was ruled after he served four years in prison, pending his trial.
The Federal Ethics & Anti-corruption Commission prosecutor charged Simachew for tax-related crimes and a corruption case along with the former top officials at the Ethiopian Revenues & Customs Authority (ERCA), Melaku Fenta and Gebrewahid W. Giorgis in May 2013. He was accused of abusing a duty-free privilege to import construction finishing materials that he allegedly transferred to third parties.
However, judges began to try his case separately in 2015 after the court accepted his appeal to split his case from the initial co-defendants. Although a new legislation enacted by Parliament rendered his alleged offences only punishable by administrative measures, the Anti-corruption Commission charged him for tax evasion amounting to 20 million Br and 29.4 million Br for value added and corporate taxes, respectively.
During the court session held on June 14, 2017, the High Court’s 15th Criminal Bench found him guilty on the count of evading about 674,000 Br of Value Added Tax, which is the gap proved from the evasion of which he was alleged.
Presided by Judges Hafiz Abajemal, Hailu Erago and Kedir Endris, the court rejected the federal prosecutor’s allegations on the remaining counts, which were making false or misleading statements on both evaded taxes.
After the court accepted five mitigating circumstances of Simachew, the judge reduced his sentence by ten years, imprisoning him for six years. However, Simachew was jailed for over four years, making him eligible for release on probation as he already served three-fourths of the sentence.
Additionally, he is a respondent in another alleged corruption case at the Supreme Court after the Anti-corruption Commission appealed for the reversal of the lower court’s ruling in closing the corruption case with the former ERCA officials.
On June 15, 2017, the Supreme Court’s first Criminal Bench heard some of the cases appealed by the prosecutor from the Melaku Fenta and others files including Simachew’s case.
The Justices heard both the prosecutor and the respondent, who appeared with his three lawyers. After hearing Simachew’s and other cases, the Bench adjourned the case to pass decisions after finishing the hearing of remaining cases appealed by the prosecutor.
For his release, his lawyers asked the court to write a letter for the prison administration stating that he should not stay in prison for this pending case, which is accepted by the justices.
His lawyers have already started processing his release on probation. But efforts to get him out of the prison did not materialize until last Friday.
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