The team drafting the Proclamation to Prevent and Control Terrorism Crimes announced that a new bill will replace the previous Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. The draft bill allows for people to pay bail when charged with terrorism crimes. It also allows for the criminal procedure code to decide on the bail rights like other crimes. It also makes it possible to impose smaller prison sentences than the previous law.
The minimum simple imprisonment is set to be eight days and the maximum three years. Also, the bill makes one-year rigorous imprisonment the minimum while making the death penalty the highest. The team elaborated to the audience at the Ellile Hotel that courts will obtain wider discretion to penalize convicts of a different degree and also are entitled with reviewing evidence of suspects who have claims about illegal detention. Similarly, if the suspect claims to the court that their confession has been obtained by use of force the court will be entitled to see the case in the same file with its ability to penalize the official up to 50,000 birr damage.
The draft brought a paradigm shift in its intention of protecting the government to protecting the people. The National Intelligence Security Service (NISS) and have been clearly forbidden from detaining or investigating any suspects giving the power to police. Also, the procedure to use extra methods of investigation has been strengthened by entitling the court to grant the act. If police can convince the court to use the extra investigation methods, like listening to the telephone conversation, it has to apply to the court and the court permission will be applicable for 3 months.
Attendants of the dialogue raised the issue that the period given for the investigation has been very wide and the need to minimize that.
If police obtained evidence from such investigations it should present them as they were obtained, unlike the previous one which allows the transformation of means of presentation. Converting telephone conversation to scripts has been a usual way which was criticized for a long time.
Also, the former proclamation was criticized to be very vague, which is against the criminal law principles. The draft began its elaboration with defining terrorism as the act which anyone with an intention to force the government or terrorize the people or part of a society to accept their political, religious or riot.
Causing a physical injury, kidnapping, endangering human life, damaging property, natural resource or the environment, disrupting public service with an intention with the intention of enforcing once political, riot or religious purpose will be regarded as terrorism.
The bill stated that if the above offenses caused death or destruction of the cultural heritage or results in severe damage on infrastructure or if the commuter uses their cover to be a worker in a government institution or in other legal persons the imprisonment shall lie between 13 years up to 25 years.
The committee elaborates the rational to incorporate damages to heritages as terrorist acts taking experiences from other countries like Syria which damaging irreplaceable global heritage as a means to terrorize people and governments.
Aiming to fill the gaps of the previous proclamation the draft specifically excluded Public rally, job strike, or expression once idea in any means form the scope of definition. But if the acts are done to terrorize the people or to cause force the government for the religious, political or riot purpose the act will be fall under the definition.
The bill also excludes any formal or informal armed war on the government which is undertaken respecting the Geneva Convention and its protocols from the terrorist acts. Ethiopia which is a signatory of the Geneva conventions and its protocols gave pr
In the ways of declaring one legal person a terrorist organization the bill provided a process beginning at the Attorney General by presenting its evidence to the Council of Ministers. If the council approved the application it will pass it to the House of People Representative which is going to call the organization to present its evidence against the allegation. The HPR will vote after hearing the organization.
After the declaration of terrorism third parties rights are going to be respected before dissolving the company and confiscating its property.
The bill entitles the Federal High Court to have jurisdiction over the cases with the delegation of the Regional Supreme Courts.
Terrorism crime bill reformed
Doraleh Container marks anniversary
The Doraleh Container Terminal Management Company (SGTD) has celebrated the first anniversary of controlling the container terminal in Djibouti by announcing that it has registered massive improvements with regard to port handling when compared with the previous management.
During the first year anniversary, celebrated at Sheraton Addis at a gala dinner ceremony, Abdillahi Adaweh, CEO of SGTD, announced that several improvements in container handling and fleets will take place in the coming months to make the port even more compatible with international standards.
The anniversary attended by government officials of Ethiopia and representatives from Djibouti including the Djibouti diplomatic community here said this is a great thing for both countries.
“We have decided to celebrate our first anniversary with our first customer in Ethiopia,” Abdillahi Adaweh, said that the celebration.
“After the audit assessment was undertaken when we took control of the company the major challenge was to cope with the customer needs. Then we discovered there were some constrains like equipment and space and we had to work hard to find short, middle and long term solutions and we are working on it but we are already in far away better shape than one year ago,” the CEO said.
On February 22nd 2018 the government of Djibouti annulled the management agreement with DP World at the Doraleh Container Terminal, which is managed by two thirds of the government and the balance by the company.
According to the presentation of the CEO the company has registered several improved performances regarding handling of containers every month.
“From September up to now we are far higher than what was the former operator was doing. Even in February, which is the low season, we achieved 35 percent more than a year ago performance,” he said.
“In general we have registered 45 percent higher than a year ago,” he added.
He said that the movement of import containers is going well.
According to the presentation of the CEO the export of full container has reached over 7 thousand in one month, which was not registered in the past season of the former manager a year ago.
Regarding export full containers improve volume by increasing the quota of stuffing, which was limited, from 200 to 300 per day when possible and request the shipping lines to load as soon as possible. “Now there is not limitation on stuffing on the container at the port,” Abdillahi Adaweh said.
The CEO said that the export of empty container has reached on maximum level in the year. The presentation indicates that the empty container export volume in October is over 29 thousand, which is not registered compared with a year ago performance.
The CEO indicated that the number of vessels has gone down in the period compared with a year ago, which is a good a news since the port is handling big ships that has lower unitary cost for customer than using medium vessels.
The presentation indicated that the number of vessels has been reduced by 16 percent compared with a year ago.
The berth movement per hour has also significantly increased in the past one year and reached up to 78 containers that were 59. “This factor is the main important and impacting factor for the shipping line and their cost in the terminal-SGTD target is to reach the highest international level of 100 moves per hour by the fourth quarter of 2019,”
The number of cargo stay days has also been improving, according to the CEO.
The CEO indicated that several improvements including adding storage yards and handling of cargo to the fleet to Ethiopia will occur. The rail fleet is promising and should accelerate the rate of moving containers from or to Ethiopia.
He also said they have added 3 reach stackers to support train activity. He added that new RTG, which is a mobile gantry crane used in intermodal operations to ground or stack containers, will be also added in April to accelerate the activity at the port, while an additional 8 RTG will arrive in September to replace the old RTGs and boost the rail activity another 2 RTG will start operation in the forth quarter of 2019.
Ethiopian takes delivery of B737-800 freighter
Ethiopian Airlines has taken delivery of its first B737-800 freighter, the first of its kind in the Ethiopian Cargo fleet mix, on March 01, 2019. Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam during the event said “We are excited to have taken delivery of the newest freighter a few days after being crowned with ‘African Cargo Airline of the Year’ and ‘Air Cargo Brand of the Year in Africa’ Awards for the fourth year in a row. The arrival of this new freighter is a significant addition and propels both our capacity and frequency. The B-737-800 Freighter will give us a new capability to serve short haul destinations in Africa and the Middle East more economically which includes the export of Ethiopian meat, fruits and vegetables to the Gulf Region. As per our strategic roadmap, Vision 2025, we will keep introducing new systems and technologies and play an indispensable role to the socio-economic development of Ethiopia and Africa at large.” 
Developed with the industry’s most efficient and reliable technology, the new B737-800 freighter aircraft is the newest member of the freighter family and offers greatest efficiency for the standard-body freighter market. The freighter has a carrying capacity of more than 23 metric tons of payload with excellent operating economics to maximize efficiency for cargo operations. Operating ten next generation dedicated freighters and with Africa’s largest transshipment terminal, Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services delivers cargo services spanning across 44 international destinations in Africa, the Gulf, Middle East, Asia, the Americas and Europe, augmenting the export of perishables from Africa and import of high value goods.
As focus turns to large scale tax fraud, City drops 1,780 tax cases
The Addis Ababa City Administration Revenue Bureau (AARB) plans on dropping tax related charges against 1,780 taxpayers. The Authority tabled the decision to the Vice Mayor Takele Uma. It also recommended lifting tax claims by the Administration against 4,041 taxpayers. The Mayor asked for specific data on the status of the 1,780 cases. His decision is pending.
The Authority communicated with 10 Sub-city Police heads and the city administration police who handle tax cases.
The cases normally would be investigated by police, and then sent to the Attorney General, according to Tamerat Negusse, the deputy director of the Authority.
“There is going to be a legal procedure finalized before we ask for charges to be dropped, and now we are categorizing the data which will help us make a final decision,” he told Capital. “But we will strictly implement this looking into the gravity of the cases. For example, did they sell a cup of tea without a receipt or did they forge 100-thousand-birr worth of receipts.”
Five sub-cities submitted the data to the authority and more is expected this week.
The decision may suspend ongoing trials or release others from prison. Some files will be presented for a presidential pardon if those in prison applied for it.
According to the Deputy Director, the Administration is taking into consideration the previous law enforcement method of targeting small taxpayers but leaving the huge ones free. The City administration wants to change that narrative.
“Focusing on the bigger ones is a no brainer as the damage they create affects the entire tax system,” said Tamrat. “If the wholesaler doesn’t give the retailers receipts how can we expect them to issue one, so we have to enforce the law but our focus is on those who are bilking people out of a large amount of revenue.”
Initially the city lifted 50 percent of tax claims for cases in the Tax Appellate Commission, and the authority waved millions of birr for applicants claiming their estimated dues were too high. The bench will review cases after the applicant pays half of the claimed amount and the respondent, agrees to wave half. The applicants still can continue their litigation if they believe the estimated dues should be deducted even further.
The city is planning on training their employees on implementing the new way of doing things. If charges are waived those affected can apply for their withdrawal of appeal afterwards, according to Tamrat.
