Amhara Regional State Supreme court in Bahirdar, Northern Ethiopia has sentenced former Communications minister Bereket Simon to 6 years in prison for corruption.
Bereket was Communications minister from 1995 to 2012.
Bereket was arrested in January 2019 at his home in Addis Ababa and taken to Bahirdar, the capital of the Amhara region, the second largest state of Ethiopia. He has been detained since.
Bereket was found guilty by the court on Tuesday and some of his supporters claim the charges against him were politically motivated.
He was a powerful figure under Prime Minister Mele Zenawi and was often described as the chief ideologue of the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which came into power in 1990s.
Bereket was also fined 10,000 Ethiopian Birr ($310).
Source: BBC
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