Federal high court releases owner of Africa jewelry

By Hiwote Derbew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia- The Ethiopian Federal High Court released on Monday the owner of Africa Jewelry, Daniel Mekonen who was sentenced to five years in prison and fined one million birr for selling 46.96 kg of gold nuggets without the authorization of the Ethiopian National Bank.

Mekonen was set free after he appealed to the Federal High Court to look into the verdict of the first court ruling passed on May 24, 2007. The Federal High Court freed Mekonen saying that the regulations of the National Bank, Article 39 (2) of the Monetary and Banking Proclamation No.83 which stipulates that “the possession or custody of raw or refined gold pieces exceeding ten tons, except as specifically authorized by the Banks is prohibited” would not apply since it has not been explicitly stated in the nation’s laws.

Mr. Groum Abebaw, the prosecutor, however, told SSI that previously three people were convicted with the same offence and were punished by the same law. Thus, they are planning to appeal to the Federal High court.
The Federal First Instance Court charged Mekonen for smuggling 46.9 kg of gold to Djibouti on August 28, 2005.The truck was caught carrying the gold around a town called Welenchite, 200km from Addis Ababa.

At that time, Mekonen said that he only knew that he had sent the gold to Gondar not to Djibouti. According to Groum, the driver who was caught at the time testified that he had helped the accused with smuggling gold three times to Djibouti, and that he was actually driving to Djibouti despite Mekonen’s claim.

Groum explained that in the middle of the case the prosecutors cancelled Mekonen’s charges saying that he was free from the charges. In turn, Mekonen charged the Customs Authority for confiscating the gold. At this point, the Federal Anti-corruption and Ethics Commission intervened and the case was suspended for some time. prosecutors who cancelled Mekonen’s case have been put in jail for attempting to protect the accused.

Finally, for the third time the case was reopened and the court penalized the accused for breaching the National Bank’s law and sentenced Mekonen to five years imprisonment and a one million birr fine and confiscated the gold on June 1, 2007.