by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (January 17, 2019) Of the total 7,000 people blacklisted by former spy chiefs with the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), 3,000 of them have been expunged from the list by new bosses at Ethiopia’s spy agency. Those in the list were not allowed to leave or enter the country, and would face arrest and ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (January 2, 2019) Ethiopia’s Attorney General says the Tigray regional government has refused to hand over Getachew Assefa, the former spy chief who is wanted for wide-ranging crimes and human rights violations in the nearly three decades of rule by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Getachew Assefa has headed the security and intelligence arm ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 27, 2018) In response to a letter by Congressman Mike Coffman to the Secretary of State calling for the imposition of the Global Magnitsky Act on a former Ethiopian spy chief, Getachew Assefa, the U.S. Department of State said it will “evaluate the information and take steps as appropriate.” Last month, Mike Coffman wrote ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 20, 2018) The crime investigation bureau of the federal police commission sent a letter to ten offices of land administration in the capital to identify and compile information on over 400 suspects of corruption while it put a freeze on their land and property until further action by courts, according to a document sent ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 16, 2018) A former deputy head of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) was brought to a court in Addis Ababa today accused of corruption as well as torture and a range of human rights abuses against innocent citizens and suspects. Police told the court that Yared Zerihun, on orders of his former ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 12, 2018) The general prosecutor said the former head of the National Intelligence and Security Services Agency was the person who coordinated the foiled assassination attempt against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in June. Berhanu Tsegaye, the prosecutor general told a gaggle of reporters in Addis Ababa that his office and the police have done ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (October 23, 2018) A U.S. congressman who wrote a letter to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury calling for the imposition of the Global Magnitsky Act on a former Ethiopian spy chief said he is hopeful the U.S. administration would find it necessary to do so. Representative Mike Coffman of Colorado’s ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (October 22, 2018) A congressman wrote a petition urging the United States to apply the Global Magnitsky sanctions against a former Ethiopian spy chief who is implicated in a wide range of crimes and human rights violations. In a letter to the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin, Representative ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (August 21, 2018) An Ethiopian court has issued an arrest warrant on former spy chief, Getachew Assefa, whom ESAT sources say has escaped to neighboring Sudan. Our source close to the government also said Getachew Assefa has been staying in a hotel in his hometown, Mekele, Tigray region for a month. He has not been ...