ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia arrested the former head of a military-run industrial conglomerate on Tuesday and flew him in handcuffs to the capital, state media reported, a day after authorities announced investigations targeting senior members of the security forces.
Kinfe Dagnew, a Brigadier General in Ethiopia’s army and former chief executive of METEC, was taken into custody close to the border with Sudan and Eritrea, state-run broadcaster EBC said.
State media broadcast footage showing Kinfe surrounded by a ring of soldiers and later images of him in handcuffs arriving by military helicopter in the capital later on Tuesday.
A documentary that aired Tuesday evening on state-owned Ethiopian Television (ETV) gave details of widespread alleged embezzlement by METEC.
It said the firm, which was awarded a 24 billion Ethiopian birr ($863 million) contract by the state utility in 2011 to carry out electromechanical works at the Grand Renaissance Dam, had received 16.7 billion birr of the total amount so far but that only 23 percent was completed,…
